2023 ANZSLA SPORTS LAW SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME

2023 ANZSLA Awards

PAUL TRISLEY AWARD - SPORTS LAW WRITING COMPETITION

At its annual conference, ANZSLA makes an Award in memory of Paul Trisley who was a well-respected sports lawyer and an original member of ANZSLA.  The Paul Trisley Award was named after Paul at the 2001 ANZSLA Conference, in memory of a dedicated and inaugural ANZSLA member who was best known as both a legal advisor and sporting administrator.   This Award was previously known as the 'Conference Paper'.

Paul acted for most of the sporting clubs and organisations in the Newcastle area, and much of the work he did was on a voluntary/pro bono basis.  He was granted life membership of a number of these organisations, was a Papal Knight and a year prior to his death was named the St. Thomas Moore Society Lawyer of the Year. He was jointly responsible for the holding of regular meetings of ANZSLA members and other lawyers with sporting interests for several years and played a great part in the organisation of the very successful 1997 Annual ANZSLA conference in Newcastle.

The Paul Trisley Award is made to a person who has never presented at an ANZSLA event or been previously published in the ANZSLA Journal, who, in the opinion of the judges, produces the best paper. The judging takes into account the paper's accuracy, originality, practical value to sports administrators and lawyers, and its academic quality.

Entries for the 2023 Paul Trisley Award competition must be received by ANZSLA 's Executive Manager via email to anzsla@anzsla.com by Sunday, 3 September 2023.

DENIS CALLINAN AWARD

ANZSLA created an award in memory of Denis Callinan who was a well-respected lawyer and ANZSLA member. 

The Denis Callinan Award recognises members who render commendable community service in the field of sports law.  The recipient of the award is presented with a trophy in recognition of their outstanding community service, and the right to nominate an appropriate recipient of a grant of AU$2000 or NZ$2000 (dependent on the country of the recipient and subject to the approval of the ANZSLA Board).

The deadline for 2023 submissions is Friday, 1 September 2023.  For full details and terms and conditions download the document from this page.

This award is generously sponsored by the Queensland Traffic Offenders Program of which Denis was a founder.

Media Release 8 December 2022

The 2022 edition of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Journal has been released today, both in hard and electronic format and is available free of charge to ANZSLA members.   It is also available to purchase from the ANZSLA website.

The Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Journal is an independent double blind peer reviewed/refereed specialist law journal of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association (“ANZSLA”), the peak professional organisation for lawyers, academics and sports administrators practising in the area of sports law in Australia and New Zealand. It contains current articles of interest to not only legal professionals, academics and sporting administrators, but also sports journalists and the general sporting public.

Included articles:

No Right Without a Remedy: Integrating Human Rights Protection into Sports Dispute Resolution
Jones, Millie

Global sports law has largely avoided interference from nation States in order to achieve independence and autonomy. However, the almost unfettered discretion afforded to sports governing bodies (‘SGBs’) in regulating athletes and resolving disputes gives rise to concern when these regulations and decisions conflict with universally recognised human rights. With both States and SGBs being called on by the international community to increase their human rights accountability with respect to athletes, the recent Semenya and Pechstein cases have highlighted the limitations of the sports dispute resolution system as it stands. Given human rights protections are being increasingly embedded into sports governing instruments, it is essential that the exclusive means of recourse for many athletes, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, is also fortified to accommodate the increasing number of cases with human rights ramifications. With arbitration being popularised as a forum for business and human rights disputes, there are parallels to be drawn in improving the sports dispute resolution system so as to better serve those at the centre of sport – the athletes themselves.

Inadvertent Doping and the Shayna Jack Decisions: A Search for Coherence in the Court of Arbitration for Sport
Duffy, James and O’Brien, John

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is responsible for determining a number of anti-doping cases on an annual basis.
Over the past five years, differently composed arbitral panels at the CAS have dealt with athletes who claimed to have inadvertently doped. The phrase inadvertent doping is colloquially used where an athlete neither deliberately nor negligently ingests a prohibited substance,but returns an adverse analytical finding for a prohibited substance. The Shayna Jack case involved a unique set of circumstances that provided an excellent test case for the CAS to bring coherence to a series of decisions that appeared to conflict in principle. The unfortunate consequence for Shayna Jack was that she was ineligible to compete for Australia in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The upside for future professional athletes is that the Jack arbitrations (first instance and appeal) have provided clarity as to the probity and weight of different pieces of evidence that may be used by an athlete when attempting to establish a nonintentional anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the World Anti-Doping Code (and its derivatives).

Concussion, CTE & Proof of Causation by Material Contribution
Thorpe, David 

A plaintiff athlete suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) who intends suing his or her major sporting organisation in negligence for failure to warn of the risk of CTE or failing to establish concussion protocols must prove causation of harm. CTE is a disease caused by the accumulation of repetitive head trauma over an athlete’s entire career; as a junior, adolescent, and senior participant in contact sport. How, in such circumstances, is the affected athlete to prove that the CTE with which he or she is afflicted was the result of play in the premier league rather than, say, from head trauma experienced as a junior? This paper considers proof of causation by ‘material contribution’ under the ‘exceptional case’ provisions of civil liability legislation as informed by the common law. 

Athlete and Sponsor Disputes: A Novel Sports Law Issue?
Bayliss, Myles

Sponsorship is a critical element of professional sports due to it being a major source of funding. These relationships are often
tenuous and short-lived, frequently resulting in the sponsored party giving primacy to the interests of its sponsors even when making operational decisions such as athlete retention or recruitment. The increased deference to sponsor interests may have implications for legal disputes arising in the sports context. Previously, disputes have been confined to parties directly within the sports ecosystem – namely athletes and organisations; however, if sponsors have real or de facto influence over their sponsee, there may be scope for heightened involvement as a party to a dispute. An example of this is the dispute between Israel Folau and Rugby Australia, in which the Folau legal team raised potential causes of action that would extend liability to the sponsors of Rugby Australia. While involving remote parties is not a novel concept in sports litigation, litigating against a sponsor is novel. This article examines some causes of action that may be raised in a dispute to capture sponsors.

Strictly Recreational: The World Anti-Doping Code (2021) and its Amendments for Recreational Athletes
McLean, Samuel

The World Anti-Doping Code (‘Code’) is a harmonised set of rules to govern anti-doping for all athletes around the world. However, when applied to recreational athletes, these rules have resulted in sanctions which are disproportionate to an athlete’s circumstances. While amendments to the Code have sought to address this issue, the amendments are unlikely to satisfy the desire of the New Zealand Sports Tribunal to exercise broad discretion regarding sanctions for breaches of the rules by recreational athletes. This creates tension between the desire for greater discretion when imposing sanctions on athletes, and the harmonising purpose of the Code.

BOOK REVIEW
Sports Management: Principles and Applications. Russell Hoye, Katie Misener, Michael L. Naraine, Catherine Ordway (eds.) (Routledge 6th ed., 2022)
Goh, Chui Ling

BOOK REVIEW
Sports Law. David Thorpe, Antonio Buti, Paul Jonson, Jack Anderson (Oxford University Press 4th ed., 2022)
Gibson, Andrew