Breakdown of the various types of Sports Law
Presenters : Shane Wafer
Overview
Sports Law is to this day still viewed as a rather unique branch of law, however it has gained a lot more notoriety over the last 5-10 years due to some major cases involving (Aphiwe Dyantyi, Caster Semenya and the likes of Cricket South Africa). It is also a field of law that has seen a lot of development with the dawn of professionalisation in sport, growing in popularity every year amongst the junior legal fraternity. With sports getting bigger and bigger and more and more commercialised, there is a growing appetite amongst junior practitioners to get involved in this field of law.
Javelin Sports Consulting is inundated with requests for articles and vacation work from young practitioners and students wanting to get experience in what they tend to call a “sexy” aspect of the law. Representing athletes, coaches or clubs, managing disputes between federations and major sponsors, matters that garner a lot of public attention (such as those involving anti-doping or corruption), these are just some of the reason why young legal practitioners want to learn more about this field and get some practical experience on how to get kickstart a career as a sports lawyer.
Whilst it is a misnomer to call sports law a field of law in and of itself, it is often used as a buzz word to attract attention. In fact a good practitioner would know that sports law is an amalgamation of various type of law that relate to sport, such as contract law, labour law or intellectual property law. It is not exactly the same as the new fields of law we see like cyber law or space law, that are fields of law all on their own, but there are certain instances where matter can be said to be strictly sports law related, (for e.g., anti-doping).
In addition to the younger legal practitioner, there is also appetite from the more senior guard to sink their teeth into the practical aspect of sports disputes to help them understand how sports arbitrations work so that they might grow their practice and get more involved before sports dispute resolution chambers across the country, set up for various sports.
Learning objectives
- What is sports law? A brief introduction
- A breakdown of the various types of law practice within sports law.
- Sports Contracts including sports employment contracts (for clubs and athletes)
- Image rights in sports (for athletes)
- What is Anti-Doping in sport (for sports administrators)
- Sports law in theory and practice.
- The intersection between sports law and our national law.
- Dispute resolution in “Sports Law”
- How is sports law useful to better understand the sporting landscape?
- Sports and governance at a club and federation level
- Sports law: South Africa v International market
- Sports Agency and how agents are governed in SA*
- Case studies on sports legal matters.
Content
The webinar will cover the following topics:
- What are the various fields within sports law (contract, labour, IP, anti-doping, governance), how do they interest with sports?
- A breakdown of each aspect of the various expert fields within sports law and how they are seen in practice. E.g., Contracts in sports, employment law in sport, intellectual property and image rights in sport, anti-doping in sport (Each of these sections can be extensive and tailored).
- Dispute resolution in sport (Arbitration and Mediation). The practical nature of arbitration v court
- Sports arbitral bodies (national and international). National DRC’s, the Court of Arbitration for Sport etc
- How is sports law practiced in South Africa, in Africa and internationally.
- Governance in sport, sports at a macro level and how it is managed at clubs and federations.
- Marquee cases in the media you would have heard.
- How to make a move to becoming a sports lawyer.
- Sports Agents and how they are governed in SA. (extra content)