Human rights in sport: interaction of international legal and сorporate standards

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. In some areas of international sports regulation, it is lex sportiva (for example, the establishment of rules for sports competitions) or the law created by the State / States (for example, the fight against crime in sports) that plays a dominant role. In a number of areas, international sports law and lex sportiva exercise regulatory impact simultaneously. The purpose of the article is to examine how these two sets of regulations contribute to the observance of human rights in sport. The author's three goals were to analyze the process of interference of regulatory efforts based on examples of prohibiting discrimination, using lex mitior, and countering doping in sports.MATERIALS AND METHODS. In each case, the author listed the applicable international legal acts and acts of lex sportivа, studied the domestic and foreign doctrine, used the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).The author utilised such general scientific methods as the substratum (content), structural and system approaches. The comparative and hermeneutical approaches should be named as specific scientific methods that were used.RESEARCH RESULTS. Th  author characterised the content of the international legal and corporate standards that have been formed in the spheres of prohibiting discrimination, using lex mitior, and countering doping. As a result of their comparison, she comes to the following conclusions: international law and lex sportiva are unanimous in their intent to eliminate discrimination in sports; lex sportiva seeks to apply the legal standard of lex mitior; in the field of anti-doping, a number of inconsistencies have been identified between international legal and corporate standards recognized by lex sportiva.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The prohibition of discrimination is an example of harmonization, as a result of which the requirements of international sports law and lex sportiva complement and strengthen each other. The second case is an example of the successful reception by lex sportiva of the legal concept of lex mitior, which is well-known to national and international law. When countering doping at the present stage, it is lex sportiva that dominates, and the failure to fully comply with the requirements of "due process" and, in particular, with the presumption of innocence in respect of professional athletes is a cause of concern to the academic community and the ECtHR.