Physical Activities-Legal Horizon and Sports Regulation as Lex Specialis: Lex Sportiva

Abstract

The physical movement and the athletic movement and, furthermore, the whole of the physical activity, are distinct from other activities due to the organization on the basis of which it is practiced, to the way it is conducted and implemented and to the objectives which it involves. The legal entities in general and the ones of the sports sector in particular have been constituted so as to cover specific social needs, in accordance with the provisions of the applicable regulations and the ones of the Constitution. In Physical Education and Sport there are many interesting legal entities, some governed by Private Law and some by Public Law. This athletic action and particularly the sports contest can be achieved only within a specific framework of rules governing the contest and of rules of law, so as for all the above mentioned issues to be regulated. The physical and the athletic activity, as sports’ manifestations, regulated by legal rules, constitute a specific cognitive field for both the sports science and the legal one. Sports rules are established in order to cover public and private interest in sport in the context of national and international sport activity. Sports rules, as the rules of the game, prevail over ordinary rules of law since they have been specially enacted for specific sports activities. The rules of ordinary law apply in sports for many issues. They may apply directly due to the lack of special sports rules or indirectly by absorption with analogous adaptation and implementation where appropriate.