Center for Sports Law & Policy (Duke University) (USA)
Center for Sports Law & PolicyDuke University School of Law
http://www.law.duke.edu/sportscenter/
Adress:
Duke University
Hudson Hall
Research Drive
Durham, North Carolina
27708
Sports and the Law
Sports occupies a central place in modern society. It constitutes a significant sector in the economy and an important form of cultural expression. This course examines the legal relations among the various parties in sports at both the professional and amateur levels. Particular attention will be given to the importance given to the maintenance of competitive balance and its impact on traditional notions of competition that apply in other business settings. Contracts law, antitrust law, and labor law provide the essential core for the investigation of issues in this course. In addition, this course seeks to provide an informed perspective on the financial and business structures that define the industry.
International Sports Law
Traditional offerings in the sports law area focus almost exclusively upon the law relevant to domestic sports. This seminar serves to complete the picture offered by those courses by addressing particularly the area of international sport, including both Olympic and non-Olympic sports and sports law. The course will cover issues pertaining both to the governing bodies of international sport and to individual athletes who come under their auspices.
Some of the topics that will be covered in this course include (1) the governing structures of the International Olympic Committee and its various international and domestic member organizations; (2) the governing structures of prominent international sports that do not operate under the Olympic umbrella; (3) the new linkage between Olympic and non-Olympic sports that has resulted from the recent relaxation of Olympic amateurism rules; (4) the sources of revenue for the governing organizations, including trademark protections, television contracts, and the related problems of ambush marketing and commercialization; (5) dispute resolution, including the relationship between international and domestic decision making, the applicability of international Court of Arbitration for Sport; (6) individual athlete eligibility issues, including drug use and testing; (7) contractual opportunities for individual athletes including agreements for competition, sponsorship, and product endorsement; and (7) the role of politics in international sport.
Students enrolled in this course will be required to write a paper and to make two in-class presentations, one to discuss their paper, and the other a topic related to the course materials.
Comparative Sports Law
The objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of legal relationships in professional sport in the United States and Europe with emphasis on a comparative analysis of the various differences between the American and European Models of Sport.
During the course students will be acquainted with the legal framework and organisation of US Major Leagues and international sports federations and in this context the course will focus on selected parts of public regulation of sports activities and the nature of the often proclaimed "legal autonomy" of sports organizations. Special emphasis will primarily be put on a comparative study of the US and EU legislation regarding employment relationships in sports. The course will focus on selected features of US collective bargaining agreements and player contracts and how the labour exemption under US anti-trust law has played a vital role in shaping the labour regime in US sports. In comparison the course will analyse how sports federations in Europe in recent years have had to change their rules and comply with fundamental EU principles regarding free movement of workers as a consequence of the landmark Bosman decision from 1995 and other sports-related judgements from a European court of justice.
Finally the course will examine the overall internationalisation of sports and the legal challenges that lie ahead in a sports environment that is becoming increasingly globalized.