Sports Investigations Law and the ECHR

This book focuses on the analysis of coercive measures that sports federations are permitted to use as part of their investigations to investigate rule violations.

This book focuses on the analysis of coercive measures that sports organisations are permitted to use as part of their internal sports investigation proceedings to investigate sports rule violations. The legality of such coercive measures is measured against the legal regime of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The book examines the important issue of the applicability of the ECHR to private sports organisations, which is currently widely debated in the field of sports law. The ECHR is hereby used as the analytical framework, which should also be a source of inspiration for jurisdictions outside the scope of application of the ECHR. The book further explores if and to what extent sports organisations and law enforcement agencies may exchange intelligence in support of both internal sports investigation proceedings and criminal investigations. At all stages, the work seeks to strike a balance between the interest of sports organisations to investigate sports rule violations and the rights of athletes and other sportspersons. The work will be an invaluable resource for students, academics and policy-makers working in the area of Sports Law and Human Rights Law.

Autorentext

Björn Hessert, Attorney-at-Law, is a Counsel to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Previously, Björn was an academic at University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a Visiting Professor at Tashkent State University of Law, Uzbekistan. His research and teaching interests focus on sports law and arbitration. Björn has published widely on issues relating to, inter alia, sports integrity and investigations, doping, match-fixing, sports and human rights, and sports arbitration. He is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association (ANZSLA) and the Swiss Sports Law Association (ASDS). This book has been awarded with the ASDS Publication Award 2022.

Inhalt

1. Introductory comments;
2. Analytical framework: The European Convention on Human Rights;
3. The gathering of intelligence and evidence in sports investigations;
4. The use of information obtained in internal sports investigations;
5. Exchange of information;
6. Conclusion