Sports Disputes Research Articles

Advantages of Arbitration in Solving Sports Disputes

Advantages of Arbitration in Solving Sports Disputes

Обязательные арбитражные оговорки в международных спортивных дисциплинарных спорах: особенности и проблемы

Is international arbitration always consensual and based on the autonomy of will and free expression of the parties? The basic theory would undoubtedly answer this question affirmatively. However, in sports arbitration, things are somewhat more complex. Sports disputes can be broadly divided into two major groups: (1) commercial (transfers, sponsorship, contractual disputes with players, etc.) and (2) disciplinary (doping, violation of rules and statutes, failure to fulfill duties by both athletes and sports federations). In this sense, commercial sports disputes do not differ in any way, and they maintain a consensual element and the autonomy of the parties’ will. Meanwhile, the disciplinary sports disputes operate under a “mandatory arbitration model”, implying that without the consent of the parties, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS) or internal bodies of sports federations, performing mandatory pre-judicial regulation, will be the only possible forums for resolving disputes with athletes. Is it right to permit the use of such a mechanism that clearly encroaches on personal autonomy? If so, should the coerced party be treated differently in any way? Why does CAS have exclusive jurisdiction over the majority of sports disputes, rather than, for example, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)? This article will address all of the above questions.

Promotion and Framework Act on Sport in South Korea and Japan : A Comparative Study

PURPOSE This study aimed to explore the enactment and background of Korean and Japanese sports laws, comparatively analyze the major sports-related laws of both countries, namely Korean National Sports Promotion Act, Japanese Sport Promotion Act, and the Framework Act on Sport of both countries, and derive implications for the Korean Framework Act on Sport, sports-related laws, and sports policy.METHODS Research related to sports law were collected through academic databases and major search portals in both countries and analyzed.RESULTS First, as reviewed in previous studies, the Korean National Sports Promotion Act at the time of its enactment imitated the Japanese Sport Promotion Act in almost all articles. Second, Japanese Basic Act on sport, which was a complete revision of Japanese Sport Promotion Act, further expanded the concept of “sports,” and specified nonexistent “sports rights,” “sport nation,” and “sport as a universally shared human culture,” was evaluated as having quasi-constitutional character. Third, the Framework Act on Sport of both countries specified similar sports policies and concepts in many individual articles. The Korea’s Framework Act on Sport independently included articles for superordinate law, spread of sports values into environmental and political fields, inter-Korean exchange and cooperation in sports, sports donation culture, and so on . Japan’s Basic Act on Sport independently specified preamble, sports integrity-related articles, articles for prompt and appropriate resolution of sports disputes, and for promoting anti-doping activities, and so on.CONCLUSIONS This study offers suggestions for clarifying the legal concepts of “sports” and “physical education,” resolving contradictions in the articles of the Korean Sports-related Act, establishing an independent sports policy implementation organization, establishing the legal system of the Korean Sports-related Act, and supporting the “life career” from the time of active athletes.

Unveiling the Real Madrid effect: the impact of football-related acrimony on elections

Contributing to the literature on so-called irrelevant events, this article aims to investigate the existence of a relation between football results and voters’ behaviour. There are indeed reasons to believe that football-related acrimony could influence electoral behaviour. More precisely, does the rank of a rival team and the distance between it and local teams influence the behaviour of the electorate? Spain seems to be the perfect case for study of this relationship, since the presence of football teams representing both local (comunidad) and central authorities (the Spanish Crown) allows us to study the effect of an important cleavage: the centre-periphery. This means that sport disputes may be reflected in voting preferences for ethno-regionalist parties. Following this reasoning, the better Real Madrid (the team representing the Crown) performs, and the closer the local team is to it (and thus actually competing), the stronger local supporters’ sense of acrimony and desire for payback will be. By means of a quantitative approach, using data on election results and Spanish Liga rankings, our analysis confirms the existence of a negative correlation between Real Madrid’s ranking and distance from local teams, and the share of votes in ethno-regionalist parties.

Implementation of Some Civil Procedure Principles in Review of Sports Disputes

Implementation of Some Civil Procedure Principles in Review of Sports Disputes

Collaborative Law in Sports Dispute Resolution: Maximising the Spectrum of Processes Available towards Early Resolution of Sports Disputes

There is a wide range of disputes that can and do arise in the world of international and domestic sport, whether between individuals and their sporting body or between sporting organisations and commercial partners. Sports disputes are currently almost exclusively resolved through arbitration, whether internally within the sports organisation or through an external arbitral body, usually the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This article will explore whether “collaborative law” as an alternative method of dispute resolution, could be adopted in sports disputes, given its successful adoption in other areas. Such alternatives to adjudication have the potential to improve access to justice, reduce cost and achieve sustainable outcomes.

Regulating Sports Disputes at the National Level: Requirements and Recommendations for Proceedings before National Sports Tribunals

Sports disputes are routinely subject to private resolution procedures, whether before internal bodies within the sports organisation itself, or before external fora such as, for example, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Sport Resolutions, or the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution, under their sports arbitration rules. This article presents some key requirements and recommendations for proceedings before national sports tribunals. Given the breadth of the concept of “sports disputes,” however, it is difficult to distil requirements and recommendations that (should) apply across the board in proceedings before national sports tribunals. The article is, therefore, focused on some of the more interesting or challenging elements specific to sports-related proceedings.

Sports Arbitration – Origins, Developments and the BCDR Rules

In 2022, the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution (BCDR or the Chamber) introduced rules specifically tailored to the needs of sports arbitration in the region. This article will present an overview of these rules, highlighting how they seek to guarantee a cost-effective, independent, and impartial forum to resolve sports disputes. To better understand these rules, the article will first review sports governance and sports dispute resolution, in general and in Bahrain, and explore the critical importance of independent dispute resolution in sports-related matters.

Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Role of National Courts in Resolving International Sports Disputes in the Light of Mutual Reasoning

Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Role of National Courts in Resolving International Sports Disputes in the Light of Mutual Reasoning

Alternative Dispute Resolution in Sports Disputes: A Review of Turkish Athletics, Basketball and Volleyball Federation Decisions

Sports disciplinary proceeding is the judgment process brought to the agenda with the decisions taken by the authorized disciplinary committees as a result of the violation of sports discipline rules. Since the rules of each sport are different, the actions that constitute disciplinary violations and the disciplinary penalties related to them may vary. In this research, using the document analysis method of qualitative research methods, Turkish Athletics, Basketball and Volleyball Federation decisions that the Disciplinary Committees rendered between January 1, 2014 and January 1, 2019 were examined. The decisions examined were categorized in terms of parties, types of disciplinary violations and disciplinary penalties, and decisions objected to the Arbitration Committee, and classified in terms of their results. As a result of the research, it was observed that disciplinary proceedings were carried mostly regarding anti-doping rule violations in athletics, acting against the directives in basketball, rude, obscene, humiliating behaviour and insult violations in volleyball. In terms of sides, decisions rendered mostly on athletes and coaches in athletics, and on athletes and sports clubs in basketball and volleyball.

WAYS TO RESOLVE SPORTS DISPUTES: SPECIFIC FEATURES

The article is devoted to the analysis of possible ways to resolve sports disputes, determining their features. It is noted that the peculiarities of consideration of sports disputes in court are due, in the first place, special nature of sports-legal relations, namely, that this group of relations governed by the norms of various branches of law, in particular civil, labor, economic, land, administrative and others. Such groups of litigation such as civil, economic, administrative, and criminals are analyzed. As a result of the analysis made, it is concluded that in order of civil proceedings, the largest group of sports disputes is considered. Sports civil disputes may concern disputes about invalidation or termination of training agreements or contracts between athletes and professional clubs, collection of unpaid wages, refuting inaccurate information, prohibition of illegal use of a trademark, retransmission of sports events, etc. The next fairly widespread sports dispute group is economic disputes, in particular: disputes about invalidation or termination of sports complexes, organization and implementation of matches, providing technical or title sponsorship, extracting counterfeit products containing emblems of a professional club or other registered trademarks, etc. Also, this group includes bankruptcy of sports subjects. The group of sports administrative disputes, which are specific and often occurring in practice, are analyzed. This dispute group may include disputes regarding the appeal of decisions, actions, or inactivity of state authorities or local self-government bodies or their officials relating to the sphere of sports, collecting tax debt, transfer of property to tax collateral and others. Sports criminal disputes are the least widespread, which include disputes concerning tax evasion, fees or other mandatory payments, occupying fictitious entrepreneurship, bribery of an enterprise, institution, organization, proposal or provision of unlawful benefit officials, etc. It is concluded that the courts in solving sports disputes should be guided solely by the norms of current legislation, rather than regulations of professional sports organizations, which in practice causes a greater interest of subjects of sports relations to extrajudicial ways to resolve sports disputes. The use of extrajudicial dispute solutions is due to the speed and confidentiality of their consideration, lower cost compared to litigation, as well as the real execution by the parties to a substantive sports dispute. These ways to resolve sports disputes include negotiations of the parties, mediation, an independent expert opinion, arbitration, the dispute to the Ombudsman.

EXTRAJUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS IN RESOLUTION OF SPORTS DISPUTES

The article analyzes extrajudicial instances for resolving sports disputes, identifies their role and advantagesover courts. It is noted that in practice, sports relations cannot exist without disputes, and the latter can take placebetween athletes, on the one hand, and coaches, sports organizations, mediators, etc., on the other hand; betweenathletes (on both sides), or when an individual athlete is not a party to the dispute at all. It is established that the mostcommon disputes today are about objective judging, anti-doping, fair play.As a result of the analysis of literature sources, it was found that in all national federations of Ukraine orassociations (except the Football Federation) such specialized bodies, as a rule, do not exist. The executive bodiesof the federation are empowered to resolve disciplinary disputes, and the powers to review them on appeal arevested in higher governing bodies (for example, congresses, conferences, general meetings). This provokes situationswhere sports disputes are considered by federation leaders who do not have the appropriate legal education, or evenhave a legal education but do not have relevant experience in resolving such disputes, which negatively affects thequality of sports disputes, as often unfair decisions are made or those that contradict the regulations of internationalfederations in certain sports.The work of such an independent international arbitration body as the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which isauthorized to resolve sports or sports-related disputes, is analyzed. These disputes are divided into two groups; GroupI includes commercial disputes arising from contractual relations between professional clubs, between clubs andathletes, sports agents, disputes over the specifics of transfer activities, agreements on the transfer or distributionof television and other media rights, etc., and group II – disciplinary disputes considered by the Court of Arbitrationfor Sport as a court of the first instance or a court of appeal in the case of a dispute between national authorities.It is concluded that to protect the rights and legitimate interests of sports entities, there is an extensivesystem of national and international out-of-court bodies for resolving sports disputes. Despite this, Ukraine has anunderdeveloped system of such bodies, as only the football sphere has an effective mechanism for resolving sportsdisputes at the national level, and therefore there is a significant need to establish a Sports Arbitration Court underthe National Olympic Committee of Ukraine to protect the rights of other sports.

A Study on the Use of Mediation for Resolution of Professional Sports Disputes

A Study on the Use of Mediation for Resolution of Professional Sports Disputes

Resolution of Sports Disputes through Mediation

Sport in today’s date contributes a major proportion to the global finances. The topic of sports is a very delicate one involving reputations which may be damaged to a greater ex-tent. Alternate Dispute Resolution is an integral aspect when concerns are raised due to disputes arising out of Sports. The Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS) plays a major role in solving disputes arising out of sports through appropriate means of Alternate Dispute Resolution. The paper focuses on discussing the prime aspects of the CAS when it comes to solving disputes out of sports. It discusses opinions on how the CAS can be more effective with a mediation base rather than heading to arbitration in all problem. The paper as well discusses the demographics of the Arbitrators and Mediators who precise over most cases at the CAS and where are the areas of improvement while concerning their selection. This paper takes into consideration the rules and laws relating to ADR in four countries namely United Kingdom, Switzerland, China and India. The author has tried to portray how the Indian Judiciary can consider certain aspects of ADR when it has come to the topic of settlement of disputes arising out of sports. This paper dis-cusses on what can be the effective means of solving Sports related disputes in India. The problem concerning the approachability of the CAS for Indian authorities and athletes has also been discusses. Prospects on how to improve the approachability of the CAS from India can be improved are tried to be discussed. This paper aims at promoting Alternate Dispute Resolution an appropriate mean for solving sports related disputes.

On Construction of the Sport Arbitration System with Chinese Characteristics

Sports disputes; Sports arbitration; System construction; Chinese Characteristics

Організаційно-правові умови створення спортивного арбітражу в Україні

Marina Sannikova Purpose: to determine the organizational and managerial conditions for creating sports arbitration in Ukraine. Material & Methods: method of theoretical analysis and generalization of literary sources, which made it possible to determine the state of study of the problem under study; method for analyzing documentary materials, which made it possible to characterize the problem field of creating sports arbitration in Ukraine; method of historicism, which allowed to consider the emergence and characteristics of sports arbitration; methods of analogy of the studied laws and system analysis allowed creating a theoretical basis for substantiating the organizational and legal conditions for creating sports arbitration in Ukraine. Results: the organizational and legal conditions for creating sports arbitration in Ukraine were determined and substantiated, in particular: the place of sports arbitration in the judicial system, the form of activity, legal status, roles, advantages, regulatory framework, founder, name of sports arbitration, and others. Conclusions: it was found that the creation of a single sports arbitration, whose competence will include the resolution of various conflicts relating to the sphere of physical culture and sports, is an urgent need. It has been established that for the qualified resolution of sports disputes, we need both lawyers specializing in the field of sports legal support, as well as sports officials, managers, coaches, that is, specialists who are well-versed in the field of physical culture and sports.

Instytucjonalna podstawa orzekania w ramach arbitrażu przymusowego

The courts of modern countries do not want to use the monopoly in the area of deciding about investments or sports cases. Henceforth, in time appeared a construction of alternative forms for solving such a dispute. They constitute an open category of proceedings solving sports disputes, which are undergoing a big evolution in some countries nowadays. Their common characteristic is the interference of a neutral third party (for example an arbitrator), with a purpose to present or propose to the parties a solution of a dispute. Arbitration is often thought as a quick and efficient method for determining controversies. The modern law prescribes formal and substantive requirements for the arbitration agreement, which must be made in writing. The requirement of a written form is also satisfied if in a contract between parties, they refer to a document containing a clause with a decision to resolve their dispute in arbitration, provided that such a contract is made in writing and the reference incorporates that clause into the contract. The principal problem related to the arbitration agreement “per relationem” or “by reference” lies in the consensual character of such agreement whereas the form of the agreement has been found to be a preliminary question to this matter. In the article the author analyses the institutional basis for obligatory arbitration in past and currently. This type of arbitration may be forced by a law, a third party (e.g. international sports federation) or a party of the legal relationship.

Sport Mediation: Mediating High‐Performance Sports Disputes

Conflicts in high‐performance sports (HPS) are typically tense and emotionally charged experiences for the athletes, coaches, and sports organizations involved. Such disputes raise intriguing challenges for the mediators handling them. These disputes typically involve multiple parties who often have intensely competitive personalities negotiating a volatile mix of high‐stakes win/lose issues. Mediators typically confront numerous process challenges and must operate within the rigid policy parameters of the various governing organizations involved.Mediation can successfully manage and resolve these challenging disputes, often in creative ways that repair and preserve the parties’ relationships. To be successful in this environment, however, mediators must adapt to and confront the unique dynamics of sports disputes described here.In this article, I examine multiple case studies of mediations conducted through the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) with the goal of identifying successful mediation strategies for HPS disputes. The centre, which has made mediation mandatory for almost all cases, had an overall settlement rate over a twelve‐year period of 46 percent, with rates as high as 94 percent for mediations voluntarily requested by the parties. Mediation has been used only sparingly elsewhere in the world for resolving HPS disputes to date, although, I argue, it is a successful tool that should be increasingly used both nationally and internationally. In recognition of mediation's potential role, the Court of Arbitration for Sport introduced updated mediation rules in 2016 and is moving to increase the use of mediation in international sports disputes.

The promise of mediation in sport-related disputes

The article examines the role that mediation can play and the added value it may bring to the resolution of sport-related disputes. Due to the pivotal role, arbitration has traditionally played in sport, the question posed in this article is not whether mediation should replace arbitration as a mainstream dispute resolution process. It only suggests that mediation should be institutionalized and used in appropriate sport-related disputes, primarily in contractual, commercial, and employment-related disputes as well as in disputes emanating from membership in sport organizations, as an alternative to going directly either to arbitration or to the courts. To substantiate the argument, the article explores and analyzes the limits of arbitration and the special advantage and potential contribution of mediation in sport disputes, in terms of efficiency and flexibility, privacy and parties’ autonomy, and better and more sustainable outcome, enhancing access to justice, ability to deal with non-arbitrable disputes and preserving business and personal relationships. Notwithstanding the advantages, the article highlights two possible shortcomings of mediation in sport, namely, lack of finality and loss of rulemaking opportunities, and discusses the special barriers that stand in the way of developing mediation in sport-related disputes. Finally, the article maps the state of mediation in sport, especially the degree of institutionalization of mediation on the international level, such as the CAS, ECA, WBC, and IIHF and provides recommendations for promoting the idea of mediation in sport.

Res Judicata in Sports Disputes and Decisions Rendered by Sports Federations in Switzerland

The nature of the decisions of a sports federation’s judicial instance has long been discussed, also in connection with res judicata considerations in case the same claim involving the same parties is subsequently brought before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In such a case, the CAS Panel must examine if it may entertain the claim and issue a decision. If the previous decision has already dealt with the same issue in a final and binding way, it should refuse to entertain the case. We may also encounter situations in which e.g. the previous decision terminated the proceedings (due to the lack of action by the claimants) and the Panel has to establish whether such decision had a res judicata effect. If the previous judicial instance was not a state court, the Panel must further check whether the instance that rendered the previous judgment is an “arbitral institution” comparable to state courts and vested with the power to render “arbitral awards” according to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 10 June 1958 (New York Convention, NYC58). And, finally, the CAS Panel seized with the same claim should also proceed to a control of the first decision under Article V (2) (c) NYC58. This paper deals with the broader issue of res judicata in sports arbitration proceedings and, more precisely, with the steps that should be taken by CAS Panels when they control whether the decisions rendered by other judicial instances are vested with res judicata effect.