Hong Kong well-placed to referee commercial sports disputes
first legal body to solve international disputes through mediation before a neutral third party, Hong Kong is
inviting proposals to run a two-year pilot programme for sports dispute arbitration.
The convention signed by 33 countries to establish the Hong Kong-based
International Organisation for Mediation is a groundbreaking China-led initiative to promote amicable dispute resolution. Hopefully, before too long, dispute resolution by formal mediation can also be extended to the sports sector.
Few sectors can match the growth of sport and its universal appeal across borders and cultural divides. Along with increasing commercialisation, this has created fertile ground for disputes at the elite level.
Experts say the pilot two-year programme for sports dispute resolution is a key step towards a neutral intervention mechanism. The Department of Justice says it is seeking joint proposals from an administrator and a technology provider by July 31.
Given Hong Kong's international standing in arbitration, a sports dispute resolution process would not have to start from scratch. The proposed pilot scheme follows a pledge in the chief executive's policy address in October to explore establishing such a system.
Along with the new organisation for mediation, this can enhance Hong Kong's reputation as an international centre for dispute resolution. The increasingly commercialised sport sector is generating more diverse and complex disputes, leading to the creation of institutions to settle them. The leading example is the Court of Arbitration for Sport based in Switzerland.
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