REGULATING AMERCAN SPORT

Sports Law and Regulation

by J. Gordon Hylton and Paul Anderson (eds.).

Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 1999.
Pp.588, US$19.95 (pb),
ISBN 0874620066.

Reviewed by:
LINDA A. SHARP, JD
University of Northern Colorado, USA

 

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In the Introduction to Sports Law and Regulation, the editors discuss the evolution of the discipline of sports law in the United States and note the 'unique quality of the legal problems associated with the sport industry'. The editors allude to the distinctive character of sports law, particularly as applied to anti-trust law, taxation, contract and intellectual property. Contrary to early wisdom in the evolution of sports law, which held that there is no sports law per se just law applied to sports enterprise, the editors acknowledge the current state, that is, the existence of a true 'sports law' which can be addressed as a coherent whole.

With the foregoing in mind, the editors have selected a number of essays on various aspects of sports law, all of which originally appeared in the Marquette Sports Law Journal, the first scholarly journal in the United States devoted exclusively to the law of sport. These pieces serve as an introduction to the field of sports law for students of the sports industry, regardless of their prior legal training. It is the editors' intent to have a volume both suitable for classroom use and the general reader.

The selections chosen, dating from 1991 to 1998, are organised into five main parts. Part I has three selections related to 'Sports Franchise Issues'; two deal with franchise relocation and one piece deals with risk management. The organisation of this section points to the primary difficulty of this volume, that is, where should an essay be placed? Although risk management is an important topic to address in sports law, it is a challenge for the reader to ascertain that the essay on risk management 'really belongs with' the other two pieces in the section, which are discussions of franchise relocation. This is not a criticism of the quality of any of the essays chosen, nor of their inclusion to illustrate important concepts in sports law; the reader must simply be attentive to the titles and content of each piece and not rely exclusively on the language designating each part.

Part II, entitled 'Labor and Disciplinary Issues', also has three selections. The first deals with player discipline in team sports. The second looks at the intersection between league labour disputes, sports licensing and the force majeure clause. The last essay in this section looks at the genesis of PGA Tour Inc v. Martin [2001] 532 US 1, and discusses the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 (ADA) and its effect on sports law.

Part III, 'Sports Contracts', has two seminal pieces related to the negotiation of sports contracts. Martin Greenberg's essay from 1991 discuses the components of an employment contract for a college coach. It does so from a practical perspective and has long been acknowledged as important advice to consider for those who actually represent college coaches in their employment negotiations. The second piece, entitled 'The Art of Contract Negotiation' (1992), was authored by David Falk, a highly renowned sports agent. This article has also been widely used both in the classroom and in practical discussion of negotiation in the sports industry.

Part IV considers 'Amateur and Intercollegiate Sports', and is comprised of three selections. Raymond Yasser's essay, 'A Comprehensive Blueprint for the Reform of Intercollegiate Athletics' (1993), continues to be required reading for those who are concerned about the seeming irreconcilability between the 'amateur' model which is ostensibly embraced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and the increasing professionalism and commercialism which, in reality, are well entrenched in collegiate sport. Although this essay was written almost a decade ago, Yasser's thoughtful critique remains timely in its discussions of the flawed structure upon which the behemoth of collegiate sport rests. The second essay in this section discusses the ADA as it pertains to amateur athletics. The third essay is a 1994 article dealing with Title IX of the Education Amendment Act 1972 and gender equity issues in collegiate athletics. This last piece, authored by T. Jesse Wilde, offers a good overview of the history of Title IX and offers a proposal to resolve the legal and ethical dilemma facing administrators regarding how to expand women's opportunities in athletics without seriously reducing opportunities for men.

Part V is entitled 'Perspectives' and includes two essays. The first, from 1996, explores the question of racial discrimination and harassment against the Black professional athlete. In particular, the author, Phoebe Weaver Williams, focused on roles that sports fans or spectators play in creating racially hostile working environments for Black professional athletes. The last essay in the volume, again from 1996, by co-editor Paul Anderson, also addresses racism in sport. Anderson addressed the ethical duty that sports lawyers have to combat racism in their roles within the sports industry.

This volume is certainly a welcome addition to one's library, both professionally and personally. The editors have chosen a number of seminal pieces from the sports law literature, making this volume a suitable companion to a sports law text in a sports law course, whether it is taught in a law school or within a sports management programme. The volume could also be used very well in a graduate level introductory course to the sports industry, because the essays, although using legal frameworks of analysis, touch on issues and problems in the sports industry which must be resolved by multiple analytical perspectives, including managerial and ethical frameworks. Anyone who is interested in the evolution of sports law as a distinct discipline should also find this volume very helpful.