Sport, Mediation and Arbitration

It is a pleasure to write this Foreword to the second, expanded edition of Ian Blackshaw’s well-respected book on the extra-judicial settlement of sports disputes through mediation and arbitration. Prof Blackshaw is a master of his subject who explains in clear and straightforward terms the various forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods available for dealing with a wide range of different kinds of sports disputes, which are on the increase, not least because of the huge sums of money that are nowadays at stake in sport at the elite level. As I have written elsewhere, “[t]he unique investment of competitive egos, emotions, expec- tions, and money in international sports almost guarantees a dividend of highly charged disputes…. . [and] [t]he structure for resolving them is complex. ” Dispute resolution, is one of the most critical issues which overshadow the sports arena. As Prof Blackshaw rightly points out however, ADR is “not a panacea” for settling all kinds of sports disputes, and so the role of the courts must not be underestimated. This is true in both Europe and the United States of America, where I practice and teach international sports law. The expanded version of this book includes a more in-depth study of the functions and role of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and also a review of the contribution of CAS to an emerging so-called ‘Lex Sportiva’.