1 The Nature of Sports Law An Introduction to the Subject 1.1 In the first edition of this book, published in 1999, we argued that the time had come to recognise ‘sports law’ as a valid description of a system of law governing the practice of sports. Over a decade later, in a new century and millennium, the law relating to sport is no longer in its infancy and is starting to come of age. Though not yet fully developed, it is now sufficiently developed for the term ‘sports law’ to command acceptance by the majority of legal practitioners in the field, and of sports governing bodies and adminis- trators. 1.2 In the 1990s, the existence of sports law as a distinct field of legal practice was not yet universally accepted among lawyers. Nor was the term then in common use among prac- titioners or administrators of sport. But its existence was then already recognised by the availability of pioneering sports law degrees at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Anglia Polytechnic University; the postgraduate Certificate in Sports Law at King’s College London; and by the already active British Association for Sport and Law, bringing together lawyers, academics and sports administrators. 1 1.3 The British Association continues to publish (in association with De Montfort University in Leicester) the Sport and the Law Journal , and lists of experts in sports law appear in lawyers’ directories such as Chambers and Partners Directory and the Legal 500. In the first edition of this book we noted that there was then already in existence the National Sports Law Institute at the Marquette University in Milwaukee, as well as its counterparts this side of the Atlantic. The last decade or so has seen such a pro- liferation of organisations involved in sport and the law that the website of the British Association for Sport and Law lists 19 other ‘International Sports Law Bodies’ across four continents. 2 1.4 As the title of this book implies, we continue to maintain that the subject merits rec- ognition as a discrete field of law, and that in consequence it is legitimate to use the term ‘sports law’. This is a less controversial thesis now than it was at the end of the twentieth 1 The senior author of this book is the current President of the British Association for Sport and Law. 2 They include the Sports Law Unit at the European Commission, Brussels; the Asser International Sports Law Centre, The Hague; the Centre International d’Etude du Sport, Neuchâtel; the Instituto Brasileiro de Direito Desportivo (Brazilian Sports Law Association), São Paulo; and the ANZSLA (Australia & New Zealand Sports Law Association), Melbourne.
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