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#1: The Best Interests of Sport. Administrative Stuff. Welcome! ANGEL/ syllabus Grading Computer policy Experimental video lectures. What is Sports Law?. Applicable law comes in various forms specific statutes (e.g. Title IX, agents’ registration acts)
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Administrative Stuff • Welcome! • ANGEL/ syllabus • Grading • Computer policy • Experimental video lectures
What is Sports Law? • Applicable law comes in various forms • specific statutes (e.g. Title IX, agents’ registration acts) • judicial application of broadly worded statutes in specific context of sports (antitrust, labor, IP) • arbitral or judicial interpretations of private agreements • Applicable law tends to fall into one of two categories • specific rules need to learn (salary cap, NCAA eligibility requirements, Title IX regs) • broadly worded statutes (antitrust “rule of reason,” MLB Const’s “best interests of baseball”) that reflect policy judgments
Best Interest of Sport: Introductory Concepts • Two recurring themes • Free market can’t resolve issues • Individual stakeholders’ interests diverge from long-term interests of sport • Imagine that you were summoned by the chief advisor to a benevolent dictator, and asked to explain to Her Majesty why she should allow sports in her realm: what are the socially beneficial functions of sport that would lead you to recommend that sports should continue/flourish?
Scope Note: Brief Word on Integrated Sports Structure • In most of world, sports governance is integrated • In US, sports are dis-integrated
Scope Note: Brief Word on Sports Gambling • Consensus re match-fixing • Other issues regarding legalized gambling
Different Contexts for Drug Issues • Distinguish drug testing from drug use • 3 different categories • illegal recreational drugs • legal recreational drugs (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol) • performance enhancing drugs
Discipline for Recreational Drugs • Wilson [41]: suspension for cocaine use • Rule 21(f), incorporated by reference in UPC, bars “misconduct” that is “not to be in the best interests of baseball” • Art 11 of CBA permits players to be disciplined for “just cause” • Putting aside individual contract issue between player and club if drug use diminishes performance, why is recreational drug use contrary to best interests of baseball? • If teams bid heavily for druggies, doesn't this suggest that market adequately polices skills and fans don't care about drug abuse? • If perception is key, what about domestic abusers? personal life?
Performance Enhancing Drugs • What’s wrong with athlete’s use of PEDs? • If concern is with behavior that is health-harming, should we also ban … • Caffeine • Playing hurt • Adding weight • Throwing curve balls?
Roger Clemens • Why is steroid use unacceptable but abuse of Vioxx and cortisone is ok?
Politics and Crime • Unlike other sports where entry is privately organized, in boxing promoters and boxers need licenses from state commissions • Ali [1001]: NYAC denies license b/c the act of refusing to submit to draft, and conviction for the offense, is “detrimental to best interests of boxing” • What sort of criminal or anti-social conduct is such that to permit miscreants to participate in sport is contrary to the best interests of the sport?
“Fundamental Essence of Sport” • Two jurisprudential questions in Martin • substantive question is what constitutes the “fundamental essence” of the sport of golf • judicial question is what sort of independent review should courts give to private governing board’s determinations in this regard • First legal issue: whether ADA requirement that “public accommodations” be available to the disabled where they can be “reasonably accommodated” applies to golfers, as opposed to spectators
Reasonable Accommodation under ADA • Supreme Court’s doctrine • if granting relief would be “inconsistent with the fundamental character of the game of golf” [1011], then it is not a reasonable accommodation and Martin loses • if granting relief would give claimant an “unfair advantage,” then not a reasonable accommodation • Majority concludes that allowing a disabled golfer to use a car is a reasonable accommodation • Do you agree? • Do you agree with Scalia that all sports rules are arbitrary? If so, how does that affect determinations about the “best interests of the sport?”
Summing Up • What do gambling, drug, crime, and disability cases say about what constitutes “the best interests of sport”?