Arbitration
What is arbitration?
Arbitration is a private, independent and impartial legal institution authorized by the state legal system, which enables disputes under private law to be settled. There are two essential aspects to this private justice:
- a contractual aspect: the parties jointly wish to submit their dispute to arbitrators by virtue of an express agreement to this effect; this agreement may result from the clause of a contract or the provision of statutes, for and
- a jurisdictional aspect: arbitration is real justice, instituted with a view to settling private disputes (in the same way as ordinary civil justice), pronounced in accordance with precise rules of procedure and expressed through awards which have the same enforceable effect as the judgements of ordinary civil
What are the Advantages of the Arbitration Procedure before the IACS?
It is suitable for national and regional disputes
It is specially designed to facilitate the settlement of sports-related
It is simple and flexible
It is quick and confidential
It provides for a single instance
It is not expensive
Disputes filed with the IACS
The IACS is competent to resolve all types of disputes of a private nature in relation to sport. Two categories can be distinguished among these disputes:
- disputes arising from all types of legal relations between parties and for which it has been decided to call upon IACS arbitration. For example: sponsorship contract, contract for the granting of television rights to a sports event, contract regarding the undertaking by an athlete, contract between an athlete and his or her manager, questions linked to third party liability, These disputes are submitted to the ordinary and private arbitration procedure.
- disputes arising from last instance decisions taken by the tribunals of the organization concerned or similar tribunals within sports federations, associations or other sports bodies, when the statutes and regulations of these bodies or a specific agreement provide for the jurisdiction of the IACS. For example: disciplinary decisions, in particular regarding doping, decisions regarding the qualification of athletes, decisions concerning the official recognition of events, etc. These disputes are submitted to the appeals and football arbitration procedure.
Conditions under which the IACS will intervene
In order for a dispute to be filed with the IACS, the parties must agree to do so. This agreement may take the following concrete form:
- For disputes arising from legal relations between parties and for which it has been decided to call upon IACS arbitration, the agreement may be the result of either a contractual clause which provides for IACS arbitration (“arbitration clause“), or an independent agreement with the same content, concluded after a dispute has arisen (“arbitration agreement“).
- For disputes relating to decisions made by sports bodies, the agreement will be the result of the club , federation or other sports body having inserted an arbitration clause in its statutes or regulations
The Arbitrators
Arbitration proceedings before the IACS leave the parties the free choice of their arbitrator(s) from a list of 50 persons designated for their recognized competence regarding sports law. These persons are designated by the IACS BD and are included on the list of IACS arbitrators
The arbitrators must be independent. They cannot be linked in any way to the parties nor have been previously involved in the dispute.
In addition, they must be having a sufficient degree of availability in order to perform their task.
Usefull Information
Seat of arbitration
The seat of the arbitration is Khartoum (Sudan). or in any of the IACS international branches
Arbitration language
The arbitration is carried out in Arabic. The parties may also choose another language by common accord
Representation
The parties may be represented or assisted during hearings by a person of their choice, who may or may not be a lawyer