Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

Monopoly Sports Leagues, Stephen Ross

Stephen F Ross

This Article argues that the government should break up both Major League Baseball and the NFL to provide for competing economic entities in each sport. Part I details the harm monopoly sports leagues cause in several different markets and explains why a competitive league structure can correct such harms. Part II discusses why regulatory solutions are poor substitutes for competition as a means of redressing these harms. Part III explains why neither baseball nor football is a "natural monopoly" and argues that no persuasive evidence suggests that rival leagues cannot exist in those sports. Part IV examines how the antitrust …

Sports And The Law: Text, Cases, And Problems, 5th, Stephen Ross, Paul Weiler, Gary Roberts, Roger Abrams

Stephen F Ross

This casebook introduces students to the fundamentals of labor, antitrust, and intellectual property law as applied in the professional and amateur sporting industries. It covers the unique office of the league commissioner and special concerns with the “best interests of sports”; the contract, antitrust, and labor law dimensions of the player-labor market; the peculiar institution of the player agent in a unionized industry; the economic and legal implications of agreements among league owners and responses to rival leagues; the system of commercialized college athletics governed by the NCAA and how law impacts individual sports like golf, tennis and boxing; as …

Critical Look At The So-Called Locker Room Mentality As A Means To Rationalize The Drug Testing Of Student Athletes, Walter Champion

Walter T Champion Jr.

No abstract provided.

Principles Of Contract Law Applied To Entertainment And Sports Contracts: A Model For Balancing The Rights Of The Industry With Protecting The Interests Of Minors, Richard J. Hunter Jr., John H. Shannon

Richard J Hunter Jr.

This paper discusses the context of common law and statutory materials dealing with a minor who participate in the entertainment and sports fields. The paper describes the changes undertaken as a result of several notorious cases involving prominent child actors and how the California legislature dealt with issues ranging from set asides of income, approval of contracts by a competent court of jurisdiction, recognition of the legitimate interests of all parties to the contract, to principles under which a minor would be precluded from disaffirming a contract. The paper then applies and extends the principles developed in entertainment contracts to …

Intellectual Property, Marathons, And Other Running Events, John C. Zwisler

John C Zwisler

No abstract provided.

Troubled Waters: Diana Nyad And The Birth Of The Global Rules Of Marathon Swimming, Hadar Aviram

Hadar Aviram

On September 3, 2013, Diana Nyad reported having completed a 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida. The general enthusiasm about her swim was not echoed in the marathon swimming community, whose members expressed doubts about the integrity and honesty of the swim. The community debate that followed gave rise to the creation of the Global Rules of Marathon Swimming, the first effort to regulate the sport. This Article uses the community’s reaction to Nyad’s deviance to examine the role that crime and deviance plays in the creation and modification of legal structures. Relying on Durkheim’s functionalism theory, the Article argues …

“Can I Profit From My Own Name And Likeness As A College Athlete?” The Predictive Legal Analytics Of A College Player’S Publicity Rights Vs. First Amendment Rights Of Others, Roger M. Groves

Roger M. Groves

Two federal court decisions during 2013 have changed the game for college students versus the schools, the NCAA and video game makers. This article explores whether for the first time in history these athletes can profit from their own name and likeness and prevent others from doing so. But those cases still leave many untested applications to new facts – facts that the courts have not faced. Particularly intriguing is how 21st Century technology will apply to this area in future litigation. No publicity rights case or article to date has explored the application of predictive analytics, computer programs, algorithms, …

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Examining Whether College Conference Exit Fees Are An Enforceable Form Of Liquidated Damages Clause, Adam T. Kahn

Adam T Kahn

No abstract provided.

A New First Amendment Goal Line Defense – Stopping The Right Of Publicity Offense, Mark Conrad

Mark A. Conrad

The use of images with the recognizable features of former NCAA student-athletes by a digital video firm has resulted in two highly publicized lawsuits by former college players claiming violations of their right of publicity. Thus far, two federal appeals courts – the Third Circuit in Hart v. Electronic Arts and the Ninth Circuit in Keller v. Electronic Arts -- have refused to dismiss their claims, concluding that the use of the player images constitute a valid cause of action. While their actions have garnered sympathy among the public and many scholars, it is the author’s contention that both lawsuits …

The Court Of Arbitration For Sport And Its Global Jurisprudence: International Legal Pluralism In A World Without National Boundaries, Matthew J. Mitten

Matt Mitten

This article considers an issue of global importance that has received little scholarly attention: whether the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), whose developing body of lex sportiva is a form of international legal pluralism, provides an appropriate level of procedural fairness and substantive justice to the world’s athletes, who are subject to its jurisdiction as a condition of their participation in Olympic and international sports competition. It provides an overview of the CAS arbitration system and the very limited scope of national judicial review of its arbitration awards decisions. It concludes that the CAS is a procedurally fair private …

A New First Amendment Goal Line Defense – It’S Time To Stop The Right Of Publicity Offensive, Mark A. Conrad

Mark A. Conrad

What began as a novel subset of traditional privacy rights has led courts and legislatures to create a property-based right of publicity jurisprudence that has gone beyond its original goals and now crept into the traditional First Amendment domain of protection of artistic and creative rights. In the last two decades, courts have applied the “right of publicity” doctrine in various artistic contexts and various tests devised by the courts to balance the competing interests of free speech and commercial rights to one’s identity and image have produced a panoply of rulings, exacerbated by a lack of federal law and …

Sponsorship Implications Of The Lance Armstrong V. Usps Lawsuit, John A. Fortunato

John A Fortunato

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 through 2005. At the height of his success and popularity Armstrong’s cycling team was sponsored by the United States Postal Service (USPS). Armstrong’s Tour de France victories were marred by speculation that he and his cycling teammates were using performance enhancing drugs. After years of denial, in January, 2013, Armstrong finally admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he had in fact used performance enhancing drugs. On February 22, 2013, the United States Justice Department announced that it had joined a lawsuit filed by former cycling teammate …

“The Emperor Has No Clothes:” The Ncaa’S Last Chance As The Middle Man In College Athletics, Nicolas A. Novy

Nicolas A. Novy

No abstract provided.

Issues Players Face With The Collective Bargaining Process, Matthew J. Parlow

Matthew Parlow

Street Agents: Third Party Involvement In College Football Recruiting, Brandon S. Foster

Scott Foster

In the ever changing landscape of college football recruiting, third parties, otherwise known as “Street Agents,” have become an emerging problem for college football coaches in their recruitment of prospective collegiate student-athletes. This is evidenced by the recent NCAA issues at the University of Oregon and Willie Lyles revolving around the recruitment of student-athletes during 7-on-7 summer football camps. In essence, high school football coaches are being surgically removed from the recruiting atmosphere because these third parties are developing the necessary relationships with the student-athletes and are able to direct them to the school of their choice because they host …

Exploring Ethical Issues And Examples By Using Sport, Adam Epstein, Bridget Niland

Adam Epstein

The purpose of the paper is to offer suggestions to engage your students when arriving at the ethics portion of your business law, legal environment, or sports law course. With due respect given to the classic theory of ethics, the paper offers ethical issues in the context of sport at all levels, including youth sport, interscholastic, intercollegiate, professional and the Olympic Games. Unique topics include sport-related fraud, the use of performance-enhancing drugs and technology, raging parents, running up the score, and whether the myriad of NCAA bylaws genuinely reflect and promote fundamental principles of amateurism, sportsmanship, and education.

Sales And Sports Law, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

The purpose of this article is to provide insight into the basics of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and explore its application to sports law. Particular focus is on the sale of goods found in the UCC's Article 2. Whether a buyer and seller closes a deal for the sale of helmets, bats, balls, backboards, sports memorabilia, a new artificial surface for the outdoor field or to fulfill an order for a new set of game jerseys, the UCC applies to the sale if the parties to the sales contract failed to otherwise agree upon the specifics.