AMITY LAW SCHOOL, NOIDA

WEEKLY PROGRESS REPORT

SUMMER INTERNSHIP 2020

SUBMITTED BY:
Adeeb Ul Hasan
A3256118044
 Weekly Internship Report

Week 1
I’ve chose “Sports Law in India” as my topic for research paper. It covers existing sports law in
India, problem arising with sports laws, scope of sports laws in future and a comparison with
international sports laws. In this 1st week I’ve prepared a preface and a short introduction which
I’m presenting below:-

Preface

While commentating upon the ‘law as a system of rules’, Salmond took ‘contract bridge’ as an
example1. At that time, Salmond would not have imagined that the rules of game would take such a
proportion that it would necessitate a separate branch of study called ‘sports law’. Well, now sports law
has a definite position in legal system and new sports law jurisprudence – lex sportiva is emerging.
Increasing interaction between the law and sport has led to the birth of sports law. Sport touches
various areas of law and the legal principles are acclimatized to the situation in sports. Contracts, tax,
competition, discrimination all share an edge with sports when issue arises relating to performance of a
contract or selection of a player on the basis of racial discrimination. There are other serious issues of
doping, match-fixing and violence too. However, there is a haphazard development of sports law, reason
being most of the rules being governed by various organization and as Salmond said ‘a person is subject
to the rules of the game only when he plays the game.’ There are other areas like advertising rights,
restraint clauses for players in contracts. The problem gets even more serious when it comes to
international sports where we already have a porous roof of international law. The current article traces
the development of sports law and highlights the key issues in sports law. The paper has five parts. First
part of this article deals with the establishment of sports law which incorporates the progress of ‘sports
law’ from ‘sports and law’; difference between amateur and professional sports, international sports law
and global sports law. The second and third part discusses about the international sports federations
and international sports organizations respectively. The fourth part discusses various issues involved in
sports law and the paper concludes with discussion on status of sports law in India.
INTRODUCTION

Sports, games and physical fitness have been a essential constituent of our civilization, as is present
from the existence of the highly evolved system of yoga and a vast variety of highly developed
indigenous games, including martial arts. The inherent connection between sports and games and the
human quest for excellence was recognized ever since the inception of human civilization, reaching its
epitome in the ancient Greek civilization, which was the progenitor of the Olympic movement2.

In India, history of sports can be traced back to the epic of Mahabharata which narrates an incidence
where a game called Chaturang3 was played between two groups of warring cousins Pandavas and
Kauravas. Sports have been treated as important aspect of human development. A famous saying goes
“all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.” Sport has traditionally seen itself as a private social activity
separate from the reach of legal frameworks. As Foster explains, ‘legal norms are fixed rules which
prescribe rights and duties; relationships within the social world of sport are not seen in this way’4.

However, in the recent years the sports have not only remained an activity of physical development of
body or an activity of entertainment, but has acquired a professional approach rather a business
proportion involving many stakeholders. With high salaries, ticket prices, and profits, professional sports
are no longer just a game, but a big business worth billions of dollars5.

Moreover, now the trend is towards international sports providing a fresh area of thought on the legal
relationship between the teams, organizers and states in which the game is played. The continuous
interactions and involvement of varied aspects of contract, competition, rules of the game, protecting
olympism has resulted into various rules and regulations, major part being regulated by customs. This
necessitated for the development of sports law. Sports law has developed along different lines of
thought and is not comprehensive one. The present paper argues the need for a comprehensive
legislation for regulating activities in sports both at national and international level so as to maintain the
professional spirit in sporting activities.