The German and International Sports Law Research Unit
[deutsche Fassung]
On 24 April 2002, the Law Department of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg passed a resolution setting up a research unit for German and international sports law. The research unit functions as an adjunct of the Institute of Law and Technology (www.irut.de) and the chair for civil law, commercial law, and law of technology.
The unit’s establishment came as a resounding acknowledgment of the energetic work carried out over a period of years in the field of sports law by the Institute for Law and Technology, in particular, by its director, Professor Klaus Vieweg (Dr. jur.), and by his research assistants and PhD students. After completing a degree in both law and sports in Muenster, Klaus Vieweg wrote his postdoctoral thesis (Habilitationsschrift) on German and international sports organizations – thus becoming the first German scholar to publish a postdoctoral thesis on a sports law topic. Following his appointment to the chair in Erlangen, Professor Vieweg continued to specialize in sports law. Along with commercial law and the law governing clubs and associations, sports law now forms one of the Institute’s main research interests. Up until now, eight staff members have successfully completed doctoral dissertations in the area of sports law: Isolde Hannamann (“Kartellverbot und Verhaltenskoordinationen im Sport”), Christian Paul (“Grenzwerte im Doping”), Frank Oschuetz (“Sportschiedsgerichtsbarkeit”), Magdalena Kedzior (“Gerichtliche Ueberpruefung von Vereinsstrafen am Beispiel von Sportverbaenden im deutschen und polnischen Rechtssystem“), Simon Weiler („Mehrfachbeteiligungen an Sportkapitalgesellschaften – Verbote von ‚Multi-Club Shareholding’ und deren Grenzen aus Sicht europaeischen Rechts unter besonderer Beruecksichtigung des Profifußballs in Deutschland“), Fabian Schmidt („Electronic and Mobile Commerce im Bundesligafußball – Rechtsfragen der Vermarktungsinstrumente im Zusammenhang mit dem Aufbau und der Fuehrung einer Marke im Bundesligafußball“), Johannes Niewalda („Dopingkontrollen im Konflikt mit allgemeinem Persönlichkeitsrecht und Datenschutz“) und Christoph Röhl („Schutzrechte im Sport – Zum Schutz der Sportbeteiligten vor einer kommerziellen Ausbeutung in elektronischen Datenbanken“).
In 2000/01, a study group on the “Legal Comparison and Harmonization of Doping Rules”, chaired by Professor Vieweg and conducted in cooperation with the T.M.C. Asser Instituut voor internationaal recht (The Hague), the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Freiburg i.B.), and Anglia Polytechnic University (Chelmsford), was set up at the request of the European Commission. Professor Vieweg also co-edits two series – “Beitraege zum Sportrecht” and “Recht und Sport” – as well as the journal “Zeitschrift fuer Sport und Recht (SpuRt)“, which make important contributions to ongoing sports law research; as do regular interuniversity conferences on sports law, the submissions to which have been published in five separate volumes entitled “Spektrum des Sportrechts”, “Perspektiven des Sportrechts”, “Prisma des Sportrechts”, “Facetten des Sportrechts” and „Akzente des Sportrechts“ respectively. The online-publication, "The Appeal of Sports Law", provides an up-to-date overview of the multifaceted topics of sports law.
As Vice-President of the German Sports Law Association (Deutsche Vereinigung fuer Sportrecht – DVSR – formerly: Konstanzer Arbeitskreis fuer Sportrecht) and as Honorary Vice President of the International Association of Sports Law (IASL), Professor Vieweg is a key figure among national and international sports lawyers.
Currently, research at the unit is focussed on a section on Germany for the International Sports Law Encyclopedia (in print) and on preparing a sports law data bank.
