The ICAS is the supreme organ of the CAS. The main task of the ICAS is to safeguard the independence of the CAS and the rights of the parties. To this end, it looks after the administration and financing of the CAS. The ICAS is composed of 20 members who must all be high-level jurists well-acquainted with the issues of arbitration and sports law. The 275 CAS arbitrators (2007 figure) are appointed by the ICAS for a renewable term of four years. The Code stipulates that the ICAS must call upon “personalities with a legal training and who possess recognised competence with regard to sport”. The CAS arbitrators are appointed at the proposal of the IOC, the IFs and the NOCs.
2. The Code of Sports-related Arbitration of 22 November 1994
Since 22 November 1994, the Code of Sports-related Arbitration (hereinafter: the Code) has governed the organisation and arbitration procedures of the CAS. The Code was revised in 2003 in order to incorporate certain long-established principles of CAS case-law or practices consistently followed by the arbitrators and the Court Office. The latest version of the Code of Sports-related Arbitration entered into force on 1 January 2010.
The Code thus establishes rules for four distinct procedures:
- the ordinary arbitration procedure;
- the appeals arbitration procedure;
- the advisory procedure, which is non-contentious and allows certain sports bodies to seek advisory opinions from the CAS;
- the mediation procedure.
The creation of the ICAS and the new structure of the CAS were approved in Paris, on 22 June 1994, with the signing of the “Agreement concerning the constitution of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport”, known as the “Paris Agreement”. This was signed by the highest authorities representing the sports world, viz. the presidents of the IOC, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), the Association of International Winter Sports Federations (AIWF) and the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).
- the ordinary arbitration procedure;
- the appeals arbitration procedure;
- the advisory procedure, which is non-contentious and allows certain sports bodies to seek advisory opinions from the CAS;
- the mediation procedure.
The creation of the ICAS and the new structure of the CAS were approved in Paris, on 22 June 1994, with the signing of the “Agreement concerning the constitution of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport”, known as the “Paris Agreement”. This was signed by the highest authorities representing the sports world, viz. the presidents of the IOC, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), the Association of International Winter Sports Federations (AIWF) and the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).
In principle, two types of dispute may be submitted to the CAS: those of a commercial nature, and those of a disciplinary nature.
The first category essentially involves disputes relating to the execution of contracts, such as those relating to sponsorship, the sale of television rights, the staging of sports events, player transfers and relations between players or coaches and clubs and/or agents (employment contracts and agency contracts). Disputes relating to civil liability issues also come under this category (e.g. an accident to an athlete during a sports competition). These so-called commercial disputes are handled by the CAS acting as a court of sole instance.
Disciplinary cases represent the second group of disputes submitted to the CAS, of which a large number are doping-related. In addition to doping cases, the CAS is called upon to rule on various disciplinary cases (violence on the field of play, abuse of a referee). Such disciplinary cases are generally dealt with in the first instance by the competent sports authorities, and subsequently become the subject of an appeal to the CAS, which then acts as a court of last instance.
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