International Sports Transnational Legal and Regulatory Order: Quintessential Regulatory Capitalism

Abstract

There have been comparatively few attempts to apply regulatory scholarship to the regulation of international sport. This is both surprising and regrettable. Surprising because sport inherently is a system of rules and thus, a regulatory system. Without rules there is no sport – just play. And regrettable because both stand to learn much from each other. This article remedies this gap. Understanding sports’ governance through the regulatory lens reveals sports transnational legal and regulatory order is an excellent example of regulatory capitalism on a global scale – a hybrid regulatory system of great sophistication: part private, part public; both national and international; and comprising innovative legal and regulatory mechanisms disseminated through networks of experts to bring order to what is a complex and contested regulatory space. From this examination interesting new insights emerge about both the nature and shape of sports’ current transnational regulatory regimes, and how they may evolve in the future.

Keywords: International sport, transnational regulation, regulatory capitalism, polycentric, hybrid, networked

JEL Classification: K10, K20, K23, Z20, Z21, Z29