Welcome

By President of the IASL

Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Advocate in Supreme Court, Greece

The international scholarly community, all active people occupied with Sports Law, Lawyers, as well as those who are generally involved in Sports, will have the opportunity at the end of this year from 17 - 19 November 2016 to attend  the 22nd Congress of the International Association of Sports Law (IASL) and RIOU's inaugural international Congress of Sports Law, which take place in Sochi.

It is known that the IASL is active in the sector of Sports Law since 1992, having made 21 consecutive World Congresses. From the first moment of its establishment until today, researching deeply and promoting internationally the scientific field of Sports Law. Moreover, the corresponding 1st  International Congress, in which the International Association of Sports Law (IASL) was born, was organized by EKEAD on  December 11-13, 1992 in the University of Athens.

The subject of the “22nd Congress of the International Association of Sports Law (IASL) and RIOU's inaugural international Congress of Sports Law is entitled:
                                 "Mega Events in Sport: Legal Environment"

It is a fact that Sports Law, in Greece, where the International Association of Sports Law started, as well as in other countries all over the World, has received a great expansion and has significant growth. This is also confirmed by the number of issues included for discussion as conference sessions and address the whole area of Sports Law, such as the mega events in Sports activities, with special topics:

·        International sports events and international cooperation in sports;

·        Legal issues affecting entry to sporting events (clubs, athletes); Sports funding;

·        Regulation of dispute settlement in sport (international and national levels);

·        Labour disputes in sport: current practice and ways to improve the regulatory framework;

·        Legal education in sports; Legal business in sports;

·        Ensuring safety at sporting events: international and Russian expertise and the future of regulatory practice; Anti-doping   work;

·         Intellectual property issues in sport.

Sports Law, as an expanded scientific area, not only includes issues in the narrow sense of sports  activities such as sports and International Sports Law, but also issues of physical activity, which is considered as physical education, for health reasons, wellness and well being in people's spare time and sports tourism as well.

Moreover, it is important that in this Conference, except all the special issues of Sports Law and International sports Law, will be discussed issues that require special settings, such as those of sports events and international cooperation in sports, sports management and sports tourism, ensuring safety at sporting events and disputes in sport, because with all these sporting events, there is a large movements of athletes and spectators, having  too many legal problems.

The 22nd  IASL Congress in RIOU campus (11 Ordzhonikidze St.), Sochi, Russia acquires an utmost importance because here will be discussion on a variety of topics with the presence of distinguished speakers of high international prestige, while there will be important announcements of specific researchers of Sports Law in a postgraduate or doctoral level. On the other hand, will be specifically discussed issues of international practice in sports in order to create and adopt an International practice  for mega events  sports activities, specifying the limits of Lex Sportiva in a positive perspective.

Therefore it is obvious that our expectations of such a Conference are very high, as well as the participation in this project of scholars and operators of sports life.

I am sure that the next day of the Congress we will be a wiser one. We are looking forward to your participation and we wish you to have a wonderful time in Sochi and the beautiful Russia.

The President of IASL

Dimitrios P. Panagiotopoulos