Module SXL-3140:
Sports Law

Module Facts

Run by School of History, Law and Social Sciences

20.000 Credits or 10.000 ECTS Credits

Semester 1

Organiser: Dr Craig Prescott

Overall aims and purpose

To ensure that students acquire an understanding of the foundations of sports law and the nature of the governance of sport in national, continental, and global contexts. Students completing this module will be equipped to address and evaluate governance and other contemporary issues in sport from a variety of perspectives. Such issues include sporting integrity and the challenge that increasing commercialization poses for existing structures of the governance of sport.

Course content

The module will allow students to study a range of issues within Sports Law, including, but not limited to, the following:

  • the governance and regulation of sport in a variety of contexts;
  • issues surrounding the integrity of sport, including anti-doping;
  • commercial issues within sport, including broadcasting rights and other contracts within sport,
  • the role of EU law in the development of sports law;
  • contemporary and developing issues within sport.

Assessment Criteria

C- to C+

C- to C+ (50-59%) An answer which, while always in the main accurate and correct, fails to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant material and is lacking in criticism. An answer which while reliable with regard to correctness is either not comprehensive or not entirely pertinent.

threshold

D- to D+ (40-49%) An answer which, while predominantly correct in its presentation of material, contains a significant level of error and is therefore not entirely reliable.

good

B- to B+ (60-69%) High Standard: A comprehensive answer, containing all the material relevant to the question and no irrelevancy, all the material and references being accurate and correct, there being no inaccuracy or error, the whole presented in an argument which, while clear, logical and critical, leaves room for improvement in its construction and presentation. An answer which shows complete competence in the subject.

excellent

A- to A* (70+%) An outstanding, possibly brilliant, answer, containing all the material relevant to the question and no irrelevancy, all the material and references being accurate and correct, there being no inaccuracy or error, the whole presented in a clear, logical, critical argument with little room for improvement. An answer which demonstrates a complete mastery of the subject.

Learning outcomes

  1. Identify, synthesise and critically evaluate relevant sources in relation to sports law, in its national, continental and/or global contexts.

  2. Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the law, regulations, or other rules and apply that knowledge to actual or hypothetical factual scenarios occurring in a sporting context.

  3. Demonstrate a high level of skill in articulating, structuring, and applying sophisticated arguments to actual or hypothetical factual scenarios, and to present those arguments in writing, in the appropriate manner.

  4. Appraise the basic principles and doctrines of sports law, including the ability propose and justify new links between those principles and doctrines reflecting the fundamental dynamic and relationship between law and sport.

  5. Show a comprehensive understanding, critically analyse and evaluate contemporary and developing issues within the context of sports law.

  6. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of, and the ability to apply, relevant legal rules, principles, and processes of dispute resolution within the specific context of sport.

Assessment Methods

Type Name Description Weight
Written assignment, including essay Arbitration Submission

Students are required to write a submission to the Court of Arbitration of Sport as if they are acting on behalf of one party in a dispute involving an aspect of Sports Law.

 50.00
ESSAY Essay

Students are required to write 2250 words analysing and evaluating a contemporary issue in Sports Law.

 50.00

Teaching and Learning Strategy

Hours
Lecture

20 lectures, of two hours duration, one per week, over one semester.

 40
Private study

The module requires students to undertake private study in order to prepare for seminars and assessments.

 160

Transferable skills

  • Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
  • Computer Literacy - Proficiency in using a varied range of computer software
  • Self-Management - Able to work unsupervised in an efficient, punctual and structured manner. To examine the outcomes of tasks and events, and judge levels of quality and importance
  • Exploring - Able to investigate, research and consider alternatives
  • Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
  • Inter-personal - Able to question, actively listen, examine given answers and interact sentistevely with others
  • Critical analysis & Problem Solving - Able to deconstruct and analyse problems or complex situations. To find solutions to problems through analyses and exploration of all possibilities using appropriate methods, rescources and creativity.
  • Presentation - Able to clearly present information and explanations to an audience. Through the written or oral mode of communication accurately and concisely.
  • Argument - Able to put forward, debate and justify an opinion or a course of action, with an individual or in a wider group setting
  • Self-awareness & Reflectivity - Having an awareness of your own strengths, weaknesses, aims and objectives. Able to regularly review, evaluate and reflect upon the performance of yourself and others

Subject specific skills

  • Develop the ability to interpret legal rules and employ techniques of legal reasoning competently and efficiently in order to offer a range of solutions and conclusions to actual or hypothetical complex legal problems, all supported by relevant academic literature, jurisprudence and legislative research. Such solutions will be clearly communicated and presented
  • Develop the ability to analyse complex legal issues, set against the background of the political, social, economic or cultural contexts in which they may arise
  • Develop those skills which are necessary for scholarship and research in legal subjects, namely the ability to identify relevant primary and secondary legal sources and to retrieve accurate legal information using paper and electronic sources

Resources

Talis Reading list

http://readinglists.bangor.ac.uk/modules/sxl-3140.html

Reading list

Textbook

  • Mark James, Sports Law (3rd edn, MacMillan 2017)
  • Simon Gardner, Roger Welch, Sports Law (4th edn, Routledge 2012)
  • Stephen F. Ross, Advanced Introduction to Global Sports Law, (Edward Elgar 2021)
  • Jack Anderson, 'Modern Sports Law - A Textbook' (Hart 2010)

Academic Journals

  • Sports Lawyers Journal
  • Sport & Law Journal
  • International Sports Law Journal
  • International Sports Law Review
  • Entertainment Sports Law Journal

Practitoner Texts

  • Adam Lewis QC & Jonathan Taylor QC (eds), Sport: Law and Practice (4th edn, Bloomsbury 2021)
  • Nick De Marco QC, Football and the Law (Bloomsbury 2018)

Courses including this module

Optional in courses: