Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Since the evolution of justice, this principle has endured; a person may not escape liability for the violation of a law simply for not knowing it existed.
Doping
Sports Integrity Initiative: The dirtiest race in history?
Doping, Sports LawThe Men’s 100m at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea has frequently been dubbed ‘the dirtiest race in history’. The world-record winning time set by Ben Johnson was nullified two days after the race after a post-race drug test indicated steroid use. Suspicion of wider drug-use in the field was rife, as well as accusations that the eventual winner, Carl Lewis, ran illegally out of his lane.
Sports Integrity Initiative: Essendon – The black, the white and the grey in between
Doping, Sports LawNightmare. A miscarriage of justice. Shocked. Manifestly unfair. A tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. A Pandora’s box.
The reaction to this morning’s news that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned the AFL tribunal’s acquittal of 34 current and former Essendon players has sent shockwaves though the sporting world. The ruling transcends a sport confined in the most part to just one country, Australia, its repercussions setting a precedent for professional sport worldwide.
Sports Integrity Initiative: The destruction of samples and Martial Saugy
Doping, Sports LawAndy Brown and Isabelle Westbury
One of the most stunning revelations from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission report, published on 9 November, was that both the WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratories in Moscow and Lausanne had destroyed athlete samples, against the specific instructions of WADA. New information relating to the role that the Director of the Lausanne Laboratory, Martial Saugy, played at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games raises new questions about the nature and extent of his relationship with the Russian Ministry of Sport and the Moscow Laboratory.
Sports Integrity Initiative: IAAF Update – ‘We have no knowledge of this’
Doping, Sports LawIt’s been a busy few months for anti-corruption in sport, with the on-going FIFA scandal erupting in May; resignations, corruption allegations and match-fixing trials plaguing the world of cricket; and now athletics has been mired in a scandal of its own. As the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prepares to deliver the findings of its independent Commission’s investigations into doping and corruption allegations in athletics, with much centring around Russian athletics, here’s an update on what’s happened so far.
Sports Integrity Initiative: AFL players’ doping bans sparks illicit drugs policy debate
Doping, Sports LawTwo players of the Australian Football League (AFL) club Collingwood, Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas, have accepted two-year bans after testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol. The bans are backdated to their provisional suspension by the AFL in March earlier this year. Collingwood released a statement saying that, in accordance with the AFL Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Agency, the two footballers had been delisted by the club and would be fined approximately $50,000 (€33,630) each, which includes having part of their 2015 player payments withheld, a figure agreed to by the players and their representatives.
Sports Integrity Initiative: WADA appeals AFL Tribunal decision to clear Dank of 21 charges
Doping, Sports LawThe World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) yesterday announced that it had appealed the Australian Football League (AFL) Anti-Doping Appeals Tribunal decision to clear Stephen Dank, the former sports scientist at Australian rules football club Essendon, of 21 charges of the league’s drug code. WADA Director General, David Howman, said in a statement that, ‘After a thorough examination of the evidence contained within the case file, WADA has decided to lodge its independent right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).’
Isabelle Westbury 