Issues in Emerging Area of Sports Law: Lex Sportivaa

Abstract

While commentating upon the ‘law as a system of rules’, Salmond took ‘contract bridge’ as an example . At that time, Salmond would not have imagined that the rules of game would take such a proportion that it would necessitate a separate branch of study called ‘sports law’. Well, now sports law has a definite position in legal system and new sports law jurisprudence – lex sportiva is emerging. Increasing interaction between the sports and law has led to the development of sports law. Sports touches varied areas of law and the legal principles are adapted to the situation in sports. Areas of law like contract, tax, competition, discrimination share a boundary with sports when issues arises relating to performance of a contract or selection of a player on the basis of racial discrimination. There are larger issues of match-fixing, doping, and violence too. However, there is a haphazard development of sports law, reason being most of the rules being governed by various organization and as Salmond said ‘a person is subject to the rules of the game only when he plays the game.’ There are other areas like advertising rights, restraint clauses for players in contracts. The problem gets still larger when it comes to international sports where we already are under the porous roof of international law. The present article traces the development of sports law and points out key issues in sports law. The paper has five parts. First part deals with the introduction of sports law which includes the development of ‘sports law’ from ‘sports and law’; difference between amateur and professional sports, international sports law and global sports law. The second and third part discusses about the international sports federations and international sports organizations respectively. Fourth part discusses various issues involved in sports law and the paper ends with discussion on status of sports law in India.