This open access book explores the complexity of the lex sportiva, the transnational legal regime governing international sports. Pioneering in its approach, it maps out the many entanglements of the transnational governance of sports with European legal processes and norms. The contributors trace the embeddedness of the lex sportiva within national law, European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights. While the volume emphasizes the capacity of sports governing bodies to leverage the resources of national law to spread the lex sportiva globally, it also points at the fact that European legal processes are central when challenging the status quo as illustrated recently in the Semenya and Superleague cases. Ultimately, the book is also a vantage point to start critically investigating the Eurocentricity and the complex materiality underpinning the lex sportiva.

The important theme “What is Sports Law?” was the topic of the international Conference on “The Concept of Lex Sportiva Revisited”, which took place in Jakarta in late 2010. Academics and practitioners are still in debate to agree on this concept as is evident in this book. This book not only contains the worked out contributions of this Conference, but also other related chapters on the subject. It produces a reassessment of the content of Sports Law and its terminology keeping a close eye on the current literature. The book appears in the ASSER International Sports Law Series, under the editorship of Prof. Dr. Robert Siekmann, Dr. Janwillem Soek and Marco van der Harst LL.M.

Given the impact that successive court rulings have had on the organisation of the sports movement in the past 15 years, the autonomy of non-governmental sports organisations has become a highly topical concern in Europe. It is also closely related to the issue of governance, the subject of previous Council of Europe studies. The Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) decided to explore the concept of autonomy in greater depth by studying the conceptual, political, legal, economic and psycho-sociological aspects of the subject. This study was carried out at the request of the EPAS by the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) on the basis of a questionnaire sent to public authorities in charge of sport and to national and international umbrella sports organisations. In addition to an analysis of the data obtained, documents produced by public authorities and sports organisations on this emerging issue are presented. This study contributes to a better understanding of the concept of autonomy and offers a clear picture of the issues involved.

Sports law has been growing rapidly over the last few years,regularly making headlines as well as leading to a developing body of law practised by specialist lawyers. This new work, by leading practitioners in the field, is the first to provide a coherent framework for understanding the law in this area, as well as a deep analysis of its key features. The subject can be split into various areas of practice. For example regulatory rules, which cover what can be described as the constitutional aspect of organised sport (this includes the enforcing of regulatory codes and the disciplinary procedures of the various sport governing organisations). Second, broadcasting and marketing which covers the revenue generated by the commercial exploitation of sports clubs, sporting events and players. This area has grown rapidly following the huge infusion of finance from television and corporate sponsorship into a growing number of sports. A third area is player representation, which focuses on the players and includes a broad range of legal issues including club transfers and player contracts (including the famous Bosman ruling), employment advice, personal injury litigation, disciplinary tribunals, discrimination law and remedies in the courts. The audience is solicitors and barristers, legal advisers to sports organisations and clubs, legal advisers to corporations and media companies, academics teaching sports law, sports administrators and law libraries.

The important theme “What is Sports Law?” was the topic of the international Conference on “The Concept of Lex Sportiva Revisited”, which took place in Jakarta in late 2010. Academics and practitioners are still in debate to agree on this concept as is evident in this book. This book not only contains the worked out contributions of this Conference, but also other related chapters on the subject. It produces a reassessment of the content of Sports Law and its terminology keeping a close eye on the current literature. The book appears in the ASSER International Sports Law Series, under the editorship of Prof. Dr. Robert Siekmann, Dr. Janwillem Soek and Marco van der Harst LL.M.

This book is designed to cover the historical development of sports law and addresses the fundamental issues of this field of law, whereas at the same time it analyses some of the most important contemporary legal issues of the field. The book includes 6 parts. Part 1 bears the title “theoretical foundation of sports law”. Part II includes a “sports law theory”. Part III addresses some important contemporary legal issues affecting the organisation and regulation of sport activities. Part IV covers the law of the Olympic Games (lex olympica). Part V analyses the sporting jurisdictional order and its fundamental principles (fair trial), focusing on the international sporting jurisdictional system and the role of the court of arbitration for sport (CAS). Finally, part VI includes the basic elements of the Greek sports law.