CHAPTER CONTENTS

Last updated 25 October 2021

Part 1: Internal Governance Issuesclick to download a pdf of this chapter

Structure of Sporting Organisations
Dispute Resolution in Sport
Discrimination in Sport

Part 2: Managing Sporting Participants or Events

Promoters
Sponsorship and Marketing
Intellectual Property
Privacy of Sportspeople
Athletes, Contracts and Restraint of Trade
Insurance in Sport

Part 3: Liability Issues

Sport and Duty of Care
Defences to Civil Liability
Sport and Criminal Law

Part 4: Integrity of Sport Issues

Drugs in Sport
Gambling and Match Fixing in Sporting Events

The professionalisation and commercialisation of sport has meant that many organisations that previously were amateur and driven by principles of recreation are now components of an industry and have to consider their legal and commercial position. This industry stretches from catering to casual participants to fully professional athletes, and the same spectrum applies for management of sporting organisations.

Virtually every area of law has some application to a sporting context, and other chapters in this book may need to be consulted to provided more depth on the specific principles involved. Areas of law include: torts, crime, intellectual property, discrimination, dispute resolution, contracts, and employment.

This chapter is divided into four parts, dealing with:

  • internal governance issues – focusing on more inward-facing legal issues such as organisational structure and dispute resolution
  • managing sporting events – covering issues such as marketing and intellectual property
  • liability issues – with a focus on civil (tortious) and criminal liability
  • integrity of sport issues – covering doping, gambling and match-fixing.