Marina Kameņecka-Usova Will Defend Her Dissertation on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Sports

Modern sports can be described as a highly commercialised social phenomenon comprising a number of interlinked relationships: athlete-coach, athlete-agent, federation-supporters, club/team-supporters, etc. With such diversity of relationships, there is a high probability of disagreements and disputes taking place. International and national regulations have therefore been established to govern sports relations by defining the rights and obligations of the state, various organisations, athletes, and other parties.

A wide range of interests can be involved in any sports dispute, whether it concerns player contracts, sponsorship issues, construction, TV broadcasts, use of stadiums after the Olympics, etc.

The commercialisation of the sports sector also means significant investments and growing public interest. The fields of sports science and sports medicine are also developing rapidly, which improves athletes' physical abilities turning them into modern superhumans and thus making sports events into spectacular entertainment. Combining the influence of these two factors, the number of disputes and how they are covered in the media has also increased rapidly.

‘The growing number of conflicts has highlighted obvious shortcomings, including flaws in the legal remedies used to resolve them,’ explains Marina Kameņecka-Usova, the author of the dissertation.

The dissertation Legal Aspects of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Sports Law is a scientific study that analyses the possibilities of resolving sports disputes using ADR methods, their relevance and problems, and summarises other countries’ and international organisations’ experience in this area. It also provides recommendations for how to improve Latvian sports regulations to ensure conformity with international trends in dispute settlement.

More information on the dissertation defence on 12 March

RSU dissertation database