Lex Sportiva

Apr 15 2005 | 3:10 PM

This paper research a part of sports law, as a field of study, primarily relating to the ability of sports institutions to produce rules of law in the context of their institutional autonomy within the legal order at national and international level for sporting activities and competition-related issues.

The problems examined in this paper are:

•  Physical activity as viewed by law and how it differs from other forms of activity,
•  sport as an activity and how the sporting act or sporting events become subject to the rules of law,
•  the nature of sports institutions and their ability to produce rules of law concerning sporting activity,
•  the extent of law and non-law in sporting rules and the necessity of a fair trial and objective judgement in disputes arising from application of those rules by raising the question who is the appropriate judge for sports issues.

The conclusion reached is that in parallel with rules of law on sporting activity a body of law has developed at international level within the context of the institutional autonomy of sports institutions, known as the Lex Sportiva. This lex Sportiva must be supervised by an international legal system, such as an "Athlodikeion", in order to ensure objective and fair trials and the enforcement of decisions.

By:
Dimitrios P. Panagiotopoulos
Asst. Professor, University of Athens – Attorney-at-Law
10th IASL Congress, 25-27 Nov.2004, Athens "