This is not a sport case but is helpful nonetheless in providing guidance to tribunals writing decisions. This occurs often in the sport context – panels and committees are often called upon to make decision on selection, eligibility, carding or discipline issues, or to make hear appeals of these decisions. As well, these panels and [...]
Archive | Procedural Fairness RSS feed for this section
Perceptions of Fairness – the Case of the University of Waterloo Football Program
The actions of the University of Waterloo in suspending its 2010 football season provide an opportunity to think about issues of ‘fairness’. We can think of fairness as it relates to the use of performance enhancing substances and “fair play”. We can also think of fairness in a legal sense. In this case, two very [...]
When a Deadline is a Deadline
Back in 2005, we wrote about a procedural fairness case (Clegg, Albert, Ciaramidaro & Biathlon Canada v. Canadian Olympic Association, 2002) involving an athlete being selected to an Olympic team even though he had missed a selection deadline. The athlete, Clegg, had achieved a result that would have qualified him for the Olympic Biathlon team [...]
The Complicated Jurisdictional World of Sport
Jurisdiction is an interesting concept – particularly in practice. Jurisdiction simply gives one the authority to act within a certain domain; however, while it has legal roots, it is also about power and persuasion. The omission of female ski jumpers from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games was, according to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, [...]
Procedural Fairness in Sport – The Flip Side of the Risk Management Coin
Question: My son is active in club sports. He would like to switch to a different team to join his friends, but a representative of the league says he cannot unless we get a release, which is highly unlikely. He’s only a kid wanting to have fun – are these rules for real? Answer: In [...]
Improving Your Selection Policies
Selection issues are important any time of the year and in any year. In the past six months we were very occupied with selection disputes relating to the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. Sport bodies are also involved in developing selection criteria for Quest For Gold, Canada Summer Games and the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and [...]
What We Have Learned From Managing Appeals
Fifteen years ago the Centre for Sport and Law began writing appeal policies for sport organizations. In 1995 we published a handbook on the topic (Administrative Appeals – A Handbook for Sport Organizations) and in 2000 we did a second handbook (So You’ve Got a Complaint – The Hearing Process from Start to Finish). Now, [...]
It’s an Olympic Year – What Coaches Need to Know About Selection Disputes
Canada is like many other countries that have, in recent years, created third-party dispute resolution mechanisms to deal with sport-related disputes. The earliest such system was created in the United States in 1978, when the Amateur Sports Act directed certain types of amateur sports disputes to the American Arbitration Association. China introduced provisions for dealing [...]
