Davis, T. (2001). What is sports law? Marquette sports Law Review, 11(2), 211-243.
Davis (2001) tried to explore what sports law was. He acknowledges the difficulty that many people including lawyers, students and other academicians encounter in answering this question. There are three different positions taken by people concerning sports law. The first is the traditional view. Those who take this position believe that sports law does not exist. The second position taken is the moderate position. This group of people believes that sports law has the potential of developing into a field of law. The last position taken by people is the one that believes sports law to be a separate field of law in itself.
The author believes that contract law plays an important role in sports as a business. In certain sports, for example, they may be in the form of skill and injury guarantees, salary adjustment agreements, time of payment of bonus, length of the contractual relationship, individual and team incentives, the importance of final year salary agreements, among many others. Labor laws have also been introduced in sports in order to aid in governance. Antitrust law has also been seen to greatly impact the structure of relations when it comes to sports.
Tort principles are applicable to various areas of law. They may equally be applied in the sports setting. However, sports have special characteristics that make the application of certain tort principles difficult. For example, when it comes to conducting on the field, it may be difficult to apply them. Concerning the question of whether sports law is a separate discipline, the author leaves the reader to decide whether it is important to place value on sports and consider it a vital part of the legal community.
Rapp, G. (2006). Affirmative injunctions in athletic employment contracts: Rethinking the place of the Lumley rule in American sports law. Marquette Sports Law Review, 16(2), 261-285.
In this paper, the author looked at some of the legal implications in case of breach of contract in sports. He tried to look at some of the legal implications that players would have in case they decided to breach a contract. An example of this situation includes when the players decide to maintain their holdouts in important events. Such events include the case where players fail to turn up for important training sessions or fail to participate in preseason games. All these activities have become commonplace in American professional football.
In many cases, the only solution that the court of law offers to such issues is contract damages. This is unfortunate since courts of equity have maintained their position of not issuing affirmative injunctions in case of such issues to do with breach of contract. This cuts out the availability of the most effective remedy. This is what was referred to as the Lumley doctrine.
In the paper, Rapp (2006) argues his position that the rule against the issuance of affirmative injunctions by the courts should be modified. This is specifically when it comes to athletic employment contracts. He proposes a straightforward solution to this problem that brings about negative externalities and deprives the fans of their right to a good match. He believes that providing affirmative injunctions for particular performances would be effective. However, adopting this solution would mean modifying some of the statutes in some states.
References
Davis, T. (2001). What is sports law? Marquette sports Law Review, 11(2), 211-243.
Rapp, G. (2006). Affirmative injunctions in athletic employment contracts: Rethinking the place of the Lumley rule in American sports law. Marquette Sports Law Review, 16(2), 261-285.