12 February 2026
Is the International Olympic Committee’s Decision to Disqualify Vladyslav Heraskevych Legal?
On 12 February 2026, Vladyslav Heraskevych had his Olympic accreditation withdrawn by the International Olympic Committee. If the Court of Arbitration for Sport takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that the IOC’s regulations and decisions imposed on Olympians are compatible with international and European human rights law, in line with the IOC’s express commitment in its Olympic Charter, it is difficult to see how it could not declare Heraskevych’s disqualification and loss of accreditation unlawful and reinstate at least the athlete’s accreditation. Continue reading >>
4 
11 July 2025
The Finish Line of Caster Semenya’s Judicial Marathon
Caster Semenya was wronged, and Switzerland – due to the inaction of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (SFSC) – was held responsible by the Grand Chamber (GC) of the ECtHR. This conclusion to a long judicial marathon is an important vindication for an athlete who saw her career destroyed by a process that violated her right to a fair hearing. The case will be remembered as a significant landmark that will affect the field of transnational sports law and governance for years to come. Continue reading >>
0
18 February 2025
How the CJEU Should Supervise the Court of Arbitration for Sport
On 16 January 2025, AG Ćapeta rendered her Opinion in the Seraing case which could have profound effects for transnational governance of sports. AG Ćapeta highlights convincingly the specificities of CAS arbitration, its forced nature and peculiar private enforcement system. She concludes that CAS awards should be deprived of res judicata effect and subject to EU law review. I advocate for a less disruptive approach. Instead of a total devaluation of CAS awards, we should condition the recognition of their bindingness to their compliance with European public policy and fundamental due process rights. Continue reading >>10 January 2025
Im Sog der Bürokratierhetorik
Lieferketten- und Nachhaltigkeitsregulierung sind auf bestem Wege, zentrale Wahlkampfthemen zu werden. Als eine der ersten Gesetzesinitiativen nach dem Bruch der Ampelkoalition brachte die FDP einen Entwurf zur Aufhebung des Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetzes (LkSG) ein und prangert darin „teure Lieferkettenbürokratie“ an, die sinnbildlich für einen Ansatz der „gesinnungsethischen Politik“ stehe und keine spürbaren Verbesserungen entlang der Lieferkette bringe. Der Entwurf befindet sich derzeit gemeinsam mit einer parallelen Initiative der CDU/CSU-Fraktion in der Ausschussberatung. Er steht exemplarisch dafür, wie ‚Bürokratie‘ zu einem politischen Schlüsselbegriff hinter dem Backlash gegen den Green Deal wird. Continue reading >>25 October 2024
Football at a Crossroads
The CJEU shook the world of football with its Diarra ruling on Friday, October 4. The impact of the ruling is all but a surprise for me. In a way, the FIFA transfer system was always on shaky legal grounds in terms of EU internal market law. Now, the chickens have come home to roost and key parts of the football transfer system have been brutally set aside. I aim to explain why the Diarra ruling marks a crucial turning point for football, its economy and even its identity. Continue reading >>11 October 2022
IOC adds Human Rights Punch to the Lex Olympica
On 9 September 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published its long-awaited “Strategic Framework on Human Rights”. The new Framework presents an overarching approach as well as concrete action plans for the IOC to address their human rights risks. This blogpost highlights both the potential of the Framework to change the way the IOC operates and the Olympics are organised and the many unknowns remaining regarding its actual transformative impact and concrete implementation in practice. Continue reading >>
0
20 July 2022
Constitutionalizing the Court of Arbitration for Sport
Claudia Pechstein is an exceptional athlete. On ice, she seems immortal, skating through her 8th Winter Olympics in February 2022 in Beijing. In the court room, she has shown the same determination and refused to back down from a bitter and expensive legal struggle. The most recent decision in Claudia Pechstein's legal odyssey, a decision by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court, is interesting beyond the German context because it concerns one of the most active and at the same time under-researched global courts: The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Continue reading >>
0
04 February 2022
Speaking up in Beijing or not?
The Beijing Winter Olympics might constitute a boiling point for the ongoing debate on the freedom of expression of athletes and fans participating in international sporting competitions. This blog symposium brings this debate to a more general audience interested in issues related to human rights, constitutionalization of transnational legal processes and private governance. As an introduction to the contributions, our blog highlights a number of fundamental points which will be at the heart of this discussion. Continue reading >>
0
12 January 2021
Verticality and Struggles over Human Rights
How do different legal orders interact vertically? Is this interaction marked by conflict and contestation, or by compromise and collaboration? This panel looks at three different such interactions: between domestic courts and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; between regional human rights courts and United Nations Treaty Bodies; and between Swiss domestic law and the lex sportiva. Continue reading >>
0
04 July 2019
FIFA and Human Rights: Introduction to the Symposium
In this blog we provide a brief introduction to the symposium by going through FIFA’s human rights impacts, policies, and responsibilities. Continue reading >>
0