Here comes the
#Semenya
thread!
I focus on the impact of the decision beyond the individual fate of Caster Semenya, and assume that the decision is final (while it might be challenged before the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR).
I promise, it’s not as long as the judgment.
👇👇👇
So much twitter ink has already been spilled on
#SuperLeague
but let me add my bit.
We are now entering a « drôle de guerre » phase, with both sides digging their trenches and waiting for the actual legal attack.
Meanwhile, here are some of the questions I wonder about [Thread]
Promise, this is my final
#SuperLeague
thread, after that back to real scholarly work.
A post-mortem analysis of an American dream that didn’t come true.
Public service message to all sports journalists going crazy because of this.
The press release does not imply a full victory for the
#Superleague
, we need to read the judgement to properly grasp its implications.
#EULaw
#Sportslaw
I have a new article out identifying the double (private-public) movement underlying
#HRDD
and charting some of
#Ruggie
's ideas and commitments which paved the way for it.
The first 50 copies are freely available at
#BizHumanRights
#UNGPs
#DueDiligence
It's been so long since there was a good Russian case at CAS..... From the Russian Football Union: "We reserve the right to challenge the decision of FIFA and UEFA in accordance with international sports law."
10 Christmas takeaway on
#Superleague
,
#ISU
,
#RoyalAntwerp
.
To the
#CJEU
, I won't forgive you for having delivered these decisions on 21 December.
To journos, it took 24h for someone working on these issues since 15 years to digest the rulings, so take it slow!
👇
In EP09 of the GA Podcast, host 2x Olympian Noah Hoffman is joined by Dr. Antoine Duval
@Ant1Duval
to discuss issues with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. What is keeping CAS from transparency? Listen below!
On
@ApplePodcasts
⬇️ or wherever you listen
#Sportslaw
Breaking!
#ECtHR
Grand Chamber will rule on Switzerland’s referral of the
#Semenya
case.
A pivotal moment for
#HumanRights
/
#ECHR
at the
#CAS
and in transnational sports governance, as well as for Switzerland’s responsibility in enabling the SGBs to govern as they do.
The
#CAS
announced some notable amendments to its Code of Sports-Related Arbitration yesterday.
Full doc available at
Here is a (critical) thread on the main changes 👇👇👇
#Sportslaw
#Arbitration
#Independence
First takeaway from the live stream of
#SunYang
hearing:
#CAS
has a serious translation issue.
I don’t speak Chinese, but I feel the translation of
#SunYang
’s testimony was very poor.
This is a tremendous problem in a case that will hinge on the credibility of the witnesses.
The
#Mutu
/
#Pechstein
ruling in short:
#CAS
arbitration is now officially forced arbitration
#CAS
arbitration must comply with Art. 6§1 ECHR
#CAS
hearings must be held in public
#CAS
is sufficiently independent from the SGBs (the powerful dissent on this point is a must-read)
At the request of my new [South-African, obviously] colleague
@MPlagis
, I swallowed the 163 pages of the
#Semenya
award yesterday.
It wasn’t the most pleasant literary experience of my life, but at least I learned what a judicial ‘hot tub’ is.
Here is a book review:
#Sportslaw
Important
#BizHumanRights
news!
Hague Court will translate
#Kiobel
judgment in English after all.
Thanks to
@chpaulussen
for the tip to reach out to their communication team.
Today, I’ll combine my main two academic hobbies
#Sportslaw
&
#BizHumanRights
at an important seminar on access to remedy in human rights cases involving sports.
I’ll be talking about
#CAS
’s (in)ability to deal with
#HumanRights
issues.
Slept almost 24h after two very intense days of
#ISLJConf18
@TMCAsser
with la crème de la crème of international
#Sportslaw
.
Many thanks to all those who supported us & to the attendees for making it such a lively & interesting conference.
See you next year for
#ISLJConf19
!
My thread on the interim decision of the Swiss Federal Tribunal in the
@caster800m
case.
Full decision in French at
It highlights key features of the
#LexSportiva
& the ‘complicity’ of Swiss law in sheltering it from review.
#Sportslaw
#CAS
Full English text of
#Urgenda
ruling by Hague Appeal Court confirming the duty of the Dutch State to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25% before the end of 2020 is available at
#ClimatChange
#ClimatJustice
The latest (& final) edition of the
#YISA
is out!
You can find & order the digital version at
I had the honour & pleasure of co-editing with
@AntonioRigozzi
(and the invaluable editorial eagle eye of
@eehasler
) four issues of the Yearbook.
#Sportslaw
I have a new paper out on the
#OlympicCharter
in a special issue of the Journal of Law & Society on societal constitutions in transnational regime.
Thanks to
@JiriPriban
for the opportunity & feedback.
Freely available at
#LexSportiva
#TransnationaLaw
Goodbye Andrew Jennings, the man who took on the
#IOC
&
#FIFA
and led to
#Blatter
’s fall.
He was the embodiment of the nobility of investigative journalism, a fiercely independent and meticulous Sherlock Holmes of sport.
Investigative journalist Andrew Jennings died on Saturday January 8, 2022 after a brief, sudden illness.
During a lifetime of “chasing bad men” Andrew exposed corruption at Scotland Yard, at the Olympics and at FIFA.
obituary by
@JensSejerA
For the first time in its history
#CAS
publishes an Annual Report and Financial Statements, welcome to the era of (relative) transparency!
[Follow the thread]
#Sportslaw
#Arbitration
#CAS
This translation problem might be going on behind closed doors for years.
Basically, many athletes that do not speak English might not have been properly heard.
I find it quite troubling.
#Sportslaw
#CAS
#Arbitration
#SunYang
The
@iaaforg
responds to an Open Letter from the
@IWGWomenSport
; WSI & the
@IAPESGW
by arguing that its concerns are misplaced, & it isn't subject to human rights laws. IAAF Letter of Response: & original Open Letter:
Takeaways from today’s
#Semenya
award:
1.
#CAS
= most tweeted about global judicial body (
#ICJ
judges must be jealous)
2.
#CAS
= least transparent global judicial body (an executive summary, please)
3.
#CAS
awards are getting too long (165 pages...)
#Sportslaw
#Arbitration
20. For
@MightyCaster
, this judgment is a tremendous victory and legacy, even though it will not allow her to come back on the tracks immediately (
@WorldAthletics
are sore losers) and will fall very short from compensating financially the damages she suffered.
First time
@EUCourtPress
on Friday for the hearing of the
#ISU
case.
It’s strange & frustrating to be benched during the game when you (with
@BenVanRompuy
) have spend so much time to make it happen.
Here is a thread on my day of observation participante:
#Sportslaw
#Antitrust
Full English text of
#Urgenda
ruling by Hague Appeal Court confirming the duty of the Dutch State to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25% before the end of 2020 is available at
#ClimatChange
#ClimatJustice
On Wednesday, the District Court of Dortmund issued an injunction blocking the implementation in Germany of the new
#FIFA
Football
#Agent
Regulations.
Here is a thread on what we know & what the case might mean for the future of the Regulations.
#Sportslaw
#EULaw
#Antitrust
#Sportslaw
Call for Papers!
We (
@jlindholm
& I) organise in November in Sweden (or the digital void) a conference to reflect on the influence of European (meaning EU, ECHR & Swiss) law on the global governance of sport.
Send us your abstracts by 1 July!
[We cover travel costs]
5. Exciting times, with real opportunities for transformative change in the way we regulate football, and not only in the direction of hyper commercialization. Ironically, the G12 could be triggering a backlash, leading to greater state interventionism in football.
Religion & sport : Le
@Conseil_Etat
rejette finalement le recours formé contre les statuts de la
@FFF
.
Une fédération sportive peut donc interdire le port de signes religieux (dont le hidjab) à tous les sportifs licenciés (même non-professionnels).
=>
I didn't believe
#ISU
would risk getting a
#CJEU
decision on this issue, and I was wrong.
The Court will have the rare opportunity to weigh in on the structure of global sports governance & the role of EU competition law in shaping it. Stay tuned!
#Sportslaw
#EULaw
#Antitrust
As (impartial) series editor (with
@BenVanRompuy
), I’m convinced this book will be transformative for the
#Sportslaw
field.
It puts some flesh/data on many intuitions we’ve had on
#CAS
jurisprudence & arbitrators.
#Sportslaw
Breaking!
Just published: 'The
#CAS
& its Jurisprudence: An Empirical Inquiry into
#LexSportiva
' by Prof. Johan Lindholm.
The book offers a radically new empirical perspective on
#CAS
, it's a must-have for all sports lawyers!
Info & order at
Thank you
@EuSport
for inviting me to introduce the panel on justice in sport at the
#EUSportForum
in Bucharest.
It was a very interesting, at times heated, discussion on the fairness of
#CAS
& sporting justice in general.
Here is a short thread on my 3 main points =>
#Sportslaw
/
#EULaw
Breaking!
New preliminary reference sent by Court of Appeal of Mons asking the
#CJEU
about compatibility of the
#FIFA
#RSTP
with Article 45 & 101 TFEU.
Full decision (in French):
Press release of the lawyers:
#Sportslaw
Breaking!
#Seraing
judgment of Bruxelles Appeal Court is out!
3 main takeaways:
1. Seraing not bound by an
#arbitration
clause.
2. Bruxelles Court competent to hear dispute under Lugano Convention.
3. Preliminary reference to CJEU not granted.
#FIFA
#TPO
#CAS
18. My 2 cents:
- CAS will have to seriously grapple with the
#ECHR
in its awards
- SFT will have to seriously review
#CAS
awards on appeal
- Expect an inflation in
#ECHR
language/proportionality analysis in transnational
#sportslaw
- Human rights lawyers will get jobs at CAS!!!
2. Will EU law allow the football pyramid to deploy its power? I think it will, this is NOT an ISU situation. The UEFA calendar is at play, solidarity is at play. Players/clubs do not risk their economic livelihood over bans from national leagues/national teams. Big ≠!
The end of another long & windy editorial journey is in sight.
Our (with Eva Kassoti) new edited volume is out at
Many thanks to our (diligent) contributors, our interns,
@RoutledgeLaw
, and
@TMCAsser
for hosting the trigger workshop in 2018.
This ruling illustrates very well the difficulty that we/courts face in categorising SGBs as public or private actors.
They are in-between, constantly straddling the border. A very interesting case study for
#TransnationalLaw
researchers.
#LexSportiva
#SportsLaw
#EULaw
#Sportslaw
Breaking!
Interesting ruling by the
#CJEU
on the applicability of EU public procurement rules to sports federations.
Full text of the decision available in French & Italian at
#EUlaw
#PublicProcurement
For now, the biggest surprised of the day is the underlined part in the
#ISU
press release.
While we (with
@BenVanRompuy
) challenged the mandatory
#CAS
arbitration in our complaint to DG Comp, I thought this ship had sailed after the
#ECtHR
's Mutu/Pechstein ruling.
#Sportslaw
My friend & colleague
@jlindholm
just left the helm of
@IntSportsLawJ
after five extremely successful years as Editor-in-chief.
We owe him a huge debt of gratitude for his tireless dedication to the leading academic journal in the international
#Sportslaw
field.
#FIFA
released the
#CAS
award (see ) in the case of the former president of the Afghan Football Federation sanctioned for sexual abuses committed against female players.
The award is long but deserves a close read for a number of reasons [ ⚠Thread ⚠]
The
#ECtHR
closes Strasbourg limb of the
#Pechstein
case for good.
BUT on the other side of the Rhine the
@BVerfG
is still to decide whether
#CAS
arbitration complies with German constitutional law.
We are almost at the end of the longest
#Sportslaw
saga since
#Bosman
.
#Sportslaw
Breaking!
New ICAS statement on the Seraing case available at
For a similar take on the case and its (limited) impact on the
#CAS
& sports arbitration, see
@Ant1Duval
's blog at
As usual strange things happened at the
#CAS
over the summer, again they discovered a few publishable awards from the early 2000s and 2010s in their drawers.
The question is: why are they published now?
Some hypotheses👇👇👇
#Sportslaw
#Arbitration
#BadGovernance
#Transparency
Thank you
@EuSport
for the invitation to introduce the panel on the definition of the specificity of sport today.
A tough assignment at the intersection between autonomy of sport, primacy of EU law and rights of athletes.
...Yes, I know, my hair was going wild...
History of European
#Sportslaw
in the making
@TMCAsser
.
Prof. Weatherill stressing that it's time for a 'new story' between
#EULaw
& sport, one that involves the EU regulating the SGBs.
It's possible under the current treaties, all we need is political will.
#ISLJConf23
#Football
Lesson 7: We are not doomed to see a
#SuperLeague
emerging. In my view, this judgment cannot and should not be read as an endorsement of the
#Superleague
, to the contrary. It is about the hypocrisy and arbitrariness of
#FIFA
/
#UEFA
.
7. What is to be done? Fans must get organise and recognise that they have considerable political power in the football governance system, they can damage « brands » and demand that football be less about milking them financially.
From 1-3 July 2020
@TMCAsser
is organizing an online workshop on International Public Interest Advocacy.
It’s a great programme with many frontline practitioners/academics sharing their insights and it won’t be dull with Geoff steering it.
Register at
Full Dutch text of
#Kiobel
judgment of Hague Court is already available at
In light of the transnational interest in the case, it’s possible that the Court will release an English translation at a later stage.
#Shell
#Ogoni9
#BizHumanRights
1. Has the football pyramid (FIFA, UEFA & co) the power to stop this? If football is only about money for players and clubs of the
#Superleague
, probably not. If it’s also about people, history, culture, maybe.