Sport, Commerce and the Law (LAWS70059)

Sport is both an industry of the modern age and a traditional activity that reaches to the core of the social fabric. Law and sport intersect in many and varied ways, some of which challenge established notions of thinking about law. Sport, Commerce and the Law is the flagship subject of the sports law program, surveying many areas of legal controversy in sport, with particular emphasis on the link between the commercialisation of sport and the emergence of sports law. This subject is the best place to start for students embarking on a program of sports law studies and, for the student with wider interests, the ideal subject through which to sample sports law. The lecturer is an established figure in the field and one of a small number of people in the world with the breadth of knowledge necessary to teach this subject.

This subject considers selected aspects of the relationship between the law and commercial and professional sporting activities. Particular attention is given to legal responses to the commercialisation of sport and how they influence sport.

Principal topics include:

• Athletes’ rights in relation to discipline, sex and racial discrimination, eligibility and selection, and drug use
• Amateurism and professionalism
• Protection and marketing of the athlete’s reputation
• Professional player contracts, including discipline, entitlement in the event of injury, assignment, inducing breach of contracts and remedies for breach
• Club and league structures and franchise ownership
• Advertising and sponsorship arrangements
• The impact of the common law doctrine of restraint of trade and the restrictive trade practices provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)
• Taxation of athletes and clubs
• International sports organisations.