Is There a Sports Law

Are we right to use the term ‘sports law’? What does it mean and why should we consider it to be important.

The existence of the subject ‘Sports Law’ has been debated for a number of years now and there are two different schools of thought with regards to the term ‘Sports Law’. Some commentators refer to ‘Sport and the Law’ arguing that there is currently no topic than can be referred to as ‘Sports Law’. Grayson, who many consider the father of ‘sport and the law’ states that ‘No subject exists which jurisprudentially can be called sports law. As a soundbite headline, shorthand description, it has no juridical foundation; for common law and equity creates no concept of law exclusively relating to sport’ . His view is that there is no separate legal discipline with regards to sport and sporting activity, and that it is only a subject area where normal legal principles are to be applied. However, there are others, mostly academics, who see Sports Law as having developed into a new legal area in its own right; ‘the answer to the argument that sports law is merely law in which the parties happen to be involved in sport, is that the law is now beginning to treat sporting activity, sporting bodies and the resolution of disputes in sport, differently from other activities or bodies. Discrete doctrines are gradually taking shape in the sporting field ... there are now clear signs that the English courts are beginning to treat decisions of sporting bodies as subject to particular principles.’ This quote from Beloff sums up the attitude of courts towards sport and is an indication of the origins of Sports law as its own discipline. Law is applied in many aspects of public and private life, but not every aspect of life has a set of legal rules. However, this development is not unique to sport, and is a process that has happened to many legal areas. Labour or employment law is a subject area that has only achieved relatively recent recognition. It has its origins in