Law Commons^™

Fairness At A Price: Protecting The Integrity Of Athletic Competitions At The Expense Of Female Athletes, Annie Bach Yen Nguyen

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Ever since women were allowed to compete in the Olympics, they have been subjected to some form of gender verification. Initially, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) required female athletes to present certificates from their doctors confirming that they were in fact women. In 1966, the IOC and the IAAF “decided they couldn’t trust individual nations to certify femininity, and instead implemented a mandatory genital check of every woman competing at international games.” This process was dubbed the “nude parades”. In response to the overwhelming disapproval of such examination, the IOC and IAAF began implementing …

Amateur Vs. Professional In Cold War Hockey: A Consideration Of Relative Skill Levels And Their Implications For Professional Hockey Today, John Soares

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Americans who follow sports often consider amateur sport inferior, by definition, to the skill level of professionals. This article argues that during the 1970s and 1980s, new competitions between amateur (mainly Soviet and Czechoslovakian) and professional (mostly Canadian and American) hockey teams demonstrated that the amateur game could be as skilled –or even more so – than the professional counterpart. The article considers the problematic nature of “amateurism,” international rules changes that made possible the new amateur-vs.-professional competitions, and the results of some of these Cold War confrontations. It concludes with consideration of the relative merits of styles of play …

Forced Evictions, Homelessness, And Destruction: Summer "Games"? Olympic Violations Of The Right To Adequate Housing In Rio De Janeiro, Leigha C. Crout

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This article details the violations of the right to housing that took place in preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Analyzed under the international, regional, and domestic instruments that enumerate this guarantee, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the Charter and the Declaration of the Rights and Duties of the Organization of American States, and the Constitution of Brazil, the aim of this work is to draw attention to the systematic deprivation of one of the most central human rights in the name of the Games.

2017 Master Of The Game Award

Marquette Sports Law Review

None

Did The Pyeongchang Games Prove The Olympics Can Still Broker Peace?, Robert Blecker

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

The Damage From Mega-Sporting Events In Brazil, J. Justin Woods

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Student Publications

Over the past several years, Brazil’s federal government and the city and state governments of Rio de Janeiro have invested tens of billions of dollars to develop the transportation, stadium, tourist, communications and security infrastructure required to host the 2007 Pan American Games, 2014 World Cup, and 2016 Summer Olympics. As Brazil seeks to use these mega- sporting events to assert itself as a major economic player on the word stage, its strategy demonstrates how hosting mega-events serves to attract regional and global capital, and to reinforce unequal power structures at the expense of the public treasury, environmental quality and …

Simply A Dress Rehearsal? U.S. Olympic Sports Arbitration And De Novo Review At The Court Of Arbitration For Sport, Maureen A. Weston

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Olympics, Ambush Marketing And Sochi Media, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of ambush marketing and the legal environment surrounding it. With the advent of the Sochi Olympic Games held in February, 2014, ambush marketing again makes its way to the forefront of national and international attention. Certainly, the discussion of ambush marketing in advertising strategies would be a useful tool at any point in a law course that addresses intellectual property such as trademarks and domain names, and consumer protection issues in general. For decades, non-official sponsors of the Olympic Games have found ways to use the Olympic event platform to …

From The 2014 World Cup To The 2016 Olympics: Brazil's Role In The Global Anti-Corruption Movement, Andrew B. Spalding

Law Faculty Publications

This Comment is the first in a series of publications on Brazil's efforts and, we hope, its successes in reducing corruption in the 2016 Olympic Games. It is written as part of a course at the University of Richmond School of Law entitled "Brazil, Corruption, and the 2016 Summer Olympics"-the co-authors are eight students and their pro- fessor. While the ultimate product will be a comprehensive analysis of the role of Brazilian law in controlling corruption, this Comment has a more modest purpose. It will discuss the various trends and forces that have converged on Brazil's hosting of the Games, …

Doping Control, Mandatory Arbitration, And Process Dangers For Accused Athletes In International Sports , Maureen A. Weston

Maureen A Weston

Athletes in a professional sports league in the United States are members of players unions, which assist their athletes in obtaining representation when they are involved in dispute resolution proceedings associated with disciplinary actions. However, individual athletes who participate in international competitions do not enjoy the same benefits. When these athletes are required to submit to mandatory drug testing, with attendant potential criminal liability, and to mandatory arbitration, they should be provided meaningful access to competent legal representation when their athletic careers are in jeopardy. This article considers the legal framework, process, and recourse for athletes in international competition to …

The Beijing Summer Olympic Games: Decisions From The Cas And Ioc, Richard H. Mclaren, Geoff Cowper-Smith

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article reviews the Beijing Olympic Games cases heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) Appeal Division before and after the Olympic Games and the Ad-hoc Division (AHD) in Beijing, together with pertinent IOC Executive Board doping and disciplinary decisions. The discussion is in chronological order dealing first with Olympic-related cases that were heard by the ordinary and appeal divisions in Lausanne prior to the AHD taking jurisdiction of Olympic matters. Those cases are followed by appeals heard by the appeal division while the AHD took jurisdiction over Olympic matters in Beijing. A discussion of the decisions made …

Doping Control, Mandatory Arbitration, And Process Dangers For Accused Athletes In International Sports , Maureen A. Weston

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Athletes in a professional sports league in the United States are members of players unions, which assist their athletes in obtaining representation when they are involved in dispute resolution proceedings associated with disciplinary actions. However, individual athletes who participate in international competitions do not enjoy the same benefits. When these athletes are required to submit to mandatory drug testing, with attendant potential criminal liability, and to mandatory arbitration, they should be provided meaningful access to competent legal representation when their athletic careers are in jeopardy. This article considers the legal framework, process, and recourse for athletes in international competition to …

Brazil’S Upcoming “Mega-Events” Human Rights Legacy, Thomas Pegram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games are well underway in Brazil, with local government officials in Rio de Janeiro trumpeting the “major success” of initiatives intended to address notoriously high levels of violent crime.

In an attempt to head off widespread concerns, which preceded South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup, the apparent success of initiatives such as the Police Pacification Units (PPUs) cracking down on insecurity in Rio’s shantytowns (many, such as Rocinha, close to popular tourist areas and venues for Olympic events) has been loudly hailed by local politicians and duly reported by …

You Can Only Race If You Can’T Win? The Curious Cases Of Oscar Pistorius & Caster Semenya, Shawn M. Crincoli

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Allison Welch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

China’s human rights record has been the subject of intense scrutiny. Therefore, when China was chosen to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, the decision was predictably controversial. There were calls for boycotts of the opening ceremony by many international actors, such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and an assortment of political figures. Institutions such as the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom argued that boycotting the games would bring critical attention to China’s troubled human rights record, which would ultimately provoke Beijing to alter its controversial policies. Others argued that boycotting the games would only serve to intensify …

May Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

"China's Olympic Delusion" by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. Nation. March 19, 2008.

Sport And Politics, Christine Bell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I found the reflection interesting, but unsurprising. Protestors use the Olympic spotlight (or should we say torch?) to shine on China’s flaws, and China tries to re-direct or extinguish its beams.

"Instant Karma": How Globalization Contests China's Abuses, Alison Brysk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

China’s rise from impoverished backwater to prospective superpower has been accompanied by the repression of tens of millions of its own people, at the hands of a nationalist, developmentalist government. Under contemporary conditions of globalization, suppression of civil liberties, domination of ethnic minorities, and unholy alliances with resource-rich dictatorships are no longer plausible requisites of this model—if they ever were. The broadening and deepening of economic globalization towards a more sustainable complex of political influence involves “soft power,” including international reputation and norms. Thus, China’s Olympian reach for true hegemony provides the best chance for human rights advocates to weave …

Beijing's Olympics: Pride, Appearance And Human Rights, Thomas Beal

Human Rights & Human Welfare

One lazy summer evening in Beijing, about fifteen years ago, my wife and I were strolling down Jianguomenwai, the bustling street adjacent to our flat in the Qijiayuan Diplomatic Compound. The day had been sweltering, and as the sun began to set the sidewalks filled with pedestrians who, like us, had escaped their stuffy apartments to take in a cool, soothing breeze.

Seductions Of Imperialism: Incapacitating Life, Fetishizing Death And Catastrophizing Ecologies, Anna M. Agathangelou

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“China’s Olympic Delusion” is a great piece which gestures to the ironies and/or contradictions of political systems in bed with imperialist-capitalism as we know it at this time: the tensions between a dominant idea that liberal democracy is the best political system to pay attention to and address human rights, and capitalism with no limits, can go hand-in-hand. This is merely the delusion, and also the fantasy, that keeps “us” (i.e., citizens, intellectuals etc) put, and from thinking critically.