Court of Arbitration for Sports

COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT

Sports is a big business accounting for more than 3 percent of world trade, in the European Union alone around 2 million jobs are directly or indirectly linked to sports in some or the other manner . In the UK, annual consumer spending on sport has reached a staggering £12 billion . Apart from this in various other countries a lot of money is put at stake in this field, moreover the players are considered as youth icons and their actions influence the public at large. Hence with so much at stake in one particular field, disputes are quite obvious to rise. Sports disputes are not confined to personnel injuries but it has a wide ambit wherein it covers matters like sports sponsorship, endorsements, licensing, merchandising, image rights and broadcasting arrangements etc . Now the attitude of most of the courts in various countries like UK, USA, Australia, and even in India has been that they prefer less interference in the sports field such that their intervention in sports disputes has been limited to special circumstances. In Mc Innes v. Fane , a former English scholar held that sports bodies are “far better fitted to judge than the courts.” Maitre Bernard, a famous French constitutional lawyer once opined that it is better to settle sports related matters outside the court system “within the family of sport”.

One such body offering such Extra-Judicial Disputes Resolution of disputes arising from various sports activities is the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

In 1980’s an increasing number of international sports disputes were witnessed and there was lack of an independent body to deal with them in an authoritative manner, this prompted a number of international federations to come up with such an organization at the international level which would be able to deal with such disputes, and hence the International Olympic committee came up with the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

Court of Arbitration for Sport is a...