Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31141/zrpfs.2017.54.124.343
The Pechstein Case – Validity of the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport Decisions and Their Recognition in the National Courts
Nenad Đurđević
; Pravni fakultet u Kragujevcu, Kragujevac, Srbija
Abstract
Comparative law solutions encourage resolving disputes in the area of sport through arbitration, and instigation of court proceedings is forbidden by the rules of many national sport associations under the sanction of barring the athlete from international competing. The most important and most popular arbitration court for resolving the international disputes in the area of sport is the Court of Arbitration for Sport – CAS based in Lausanne (Switzerland). Jurisdiction will be given to the CAS if it is competent for arbitration and if there is valid arbitration agreement. Furthermore, same procedural demands apply to the CAS decisions as for the ruling of national courts: judicial independence, the right of the party to a hearing, the right to a fair trial, forbidding ex post facto laws and sanctions, principle ne bis in idem, principle of proportionality of punishment, principle of a judge impartiality, principle of reasoning behind the decision made in writing. In his paper, the author considers the issue of validity and enforceability of the decisions made by the CAS, and possibility of their denial in front of national courts according to headquarters of the CAS, as well as national courts of the parties to a dispute (in the proceedings of enforcement of the CAS decisions or regardless of that). This issue is particularly considered in the light of so-called Pechsteins case (complaint of Claudia Pechstein against the International Skating Union requesting compensation for receiving two-year ban from competition because of doping results) which was resolved by the ruling of the German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof) from 07th June, 2016, and where it was dealt exactly with validity of the arbitration agreement on the CAS jurisdiction and recognition of the CAS ruling as a foreign arbitration decision by the German national courts.
Keywords
sports; arbitration; Pechstein; doping; arbitration decisions; the CAS; arbitration agreement; impartiality of arbitrators
Hrčak ID:
180451
URI
Publication date:
25.4.2017.
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