The Making of a Lex Sportiva by the Court of Arbitration for Sport

Abstract

“Sports law is not just international; it is nongovernmental as well, and this differentiates it from all other forms of law.”1 Sports rules are genuine “global law” because they are applied across the entire world, they involve both international and domestic levels, and they directly affect individuals: This happens, for instance, in the case of the Olympic Charter, a private act of a “constitutional nature” with which all States comply,2 or in the case of the World Anti-Doping Code, a document that provides the framework for the harmonization of anti-doping policies, rules, and regulations within sports organizations and among public authorities.

Professor of Administrative Law, Faculty of Architecture, University of Rome “La Sapienza.” This paper was first presented at the Max Planck Institute International Conference on “Beyond Dispute: International Judicial Institutions as Law-Makers,” Heidelberg, June 14–15, 2010. The author warmly thanks Davinia Abdul Aziz, Eyal Benvenisti, Stefano Battini, Armin von Bogdandy, Sabino Cassese, Sarah Dadush, Giacinto della Cananea, Federico Fabbrini, Isabel Feichtner, Franco Ferrari, Matthias Goldmann, Burkhard Hess, Michael Ioannidis, Rob Howse, Marc Jacob, Benedict Kingsbury, Euan Mac- Donald, Giulio Napolitano, Salem Hikmat Nasser, Aldo Sandulli, Stephan Schill, Nicola Selvaggi, Maja Smrkolj, Simone Stebler, Richard B. Stewart, Maria Tzanou, René Urueña, and Ingo Venzke for their helpful comments. All usual disclaimers apply.