COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT

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COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT

• by Felix Majani
• University of Tillburg, Spring Semester 2012

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LEGAL BACKGROUND

• Independent institution, IOC, Lausanne, 1984.
  
• Need to offer a quick and inexpensive procedure
  to settle sport related disputes.
• Highest arbitral court in the world of sports.
  Awards are final and binding.
• Only appeal to Swiss Federal Tribunal

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THE CODE OF SPORT-RELATED ARBITRATION

• Established in 1994 and revised in 2003,2010 and
  January 2012
• It governs the organisation and arbitration
  procedures of the CAS.
• It also contains a set of mediation rules and ad
  hoc rules.

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STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS

• Provides services for settlement of disputes
• Arbitration (i) ordinary proceedings (ii) appeal
  proceedings
• Mediation

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NATURE OF DISPUTES

• Contractual relations (transfers, unpaid players
  or agents, breach of contract by clubs or
  players)
• Doping
• Commercial disputes (TV/Marketing agreements,
  breach of club licensing requirements)
• Criminal - match fixing
• Training compensation, solidarity mechanism

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TYPES OF PROCEEDINGS

• Ordinary proceedings. Cases heard at 1st instance
• Appeal proceedings. Involve appeals against
  decisions passed at federative or association
  level.

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LENGTH OF PROCEEDINGS

• Ordinary procedure between 6 and 12 months
• Appeals procedure within 3 months

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CAS JURISDCTION

• WRITTEN AGREEMENT BETWEEN PARTIES
• Such agreement could
• a) Appear in a contract
• b) Appear in the statutes or regulations of a
  sports organization.

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LAW APPLIED

• In Appeal procedures
• Statutes or regulations of the federation,
  association or sports related body which issued
  the appealed decision. e.g article 62.2 FIFA
  Statute the CAS shall primarily apply the
  various regulations of FIFA and, additionally,
  Swiss law
• In Ordinary procedures
• Parties can agree on law applicable. In case
  there is no agreement, Swiss law applies. The
  parties may also authorise the panel to decide ex
  aequo et bono.

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THE ARBITRATORS

• List of arbitrators maintained by the ICAS.
• Anyone eligible provided that he or she has full
  legal training, demonstrates good competence in
  relation to sports law and/or international
  arbitration, has good knowledge of sports in
  general and a good command of at least one of the
  CAS working languages (English, French and
  Spanish).
• Nationalities 300 arbitrators from more than 87
  countries
• Conflict of interest not litigate and at the
  same time arbitrate.

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LANGUAGES

• Official English, French and Spanish. Parties
  can also agree on a different language, provided
  the arbitrators have knowledge of that language.

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Thank youfelix.majani_at_cralaw.com CRA Coelho
Ribeiro e Associados