A comparative study of the application of strict liability principles in sports: critiquing anti-doping policies; examining "illicit crowd chanting" and match fixing / Shivankar Sharma and Pranav Menon
In: Nirma University Law Journal: Volume 4, Issue 1, July-2014, p 79-108
Sports are an integral part of our lives and are constantly looked at for encouraging the values of competition, integrity and team work in our lives. In the modern day and age with the increase in the various forms of sports played and the application of various scientific and technological principles come more complications than we could have ever imagined. With mammoths amount of money riding on these sports, winning has become all the more important. The reason athletes, teams and their management are resorting to more unethical means of finishing on top, making sure no means (how much ever illicit or disdainful) are left unexplored. These gives rise to questions of regulating such behavior of these sportsmen and women. How should the questions of doping and using banned substances be addressed from a legal perspective? What are the bodies at the international and domestic sphere to address these issues? The principle of strict liability and its application to these above-mentioned questions are some of the issues which have been addressed in this paper.
The researchers during the course of this study would like to make a comparative study on how are principles of strict liability applied differently in cases of doping, illicit chanting by the crowds and how are the managements of teams often held vicariously liable with no fault or negligence when their players are accused of match fixing, the latter becoming ever important specially after the recent allegations on spot fixing on some cricketers and their managements.
