With a Foreword by Professor Wang Xiaoping, Research Center for Sports Law, China University of Political Science and Law (CUPSL) in Beijing
This book examines, from a legal perspective, the numerous developments in the rules and institutions of the Olympic Games from Antiquity to the Modern Era. It offers a well-informed and insightful description and explanation of the so-called Lex Olympica. The book analyses the legal and institutional aspects that arise in the Olympic Movement, like its definition, composition and general organisation, its three principal constituents, its three 'Satellite Organisations' and its organs. Further it addresses contemporary legal questions and inherent consequences the Olympic Movement encounters, such as eligibility criteria, legal protection of the Olympic symbol, protection of the environment, advertising and ambush marketing, athletes' freedom of expression and Olympic boycotts.
The book also contains a section of Basic Documents and a list of Selected Writings on the Law of the Olympic Games. It is a valuable tool for sports lawyers, sports managers, sports administrators, governmental and sports officials, as well as researchers and academics with an interest in this field.
Alexandre Miguel Mestre is a senior advocate and international sports lawyer. He is a former assistant to the Portuguese Secretary of State for Sport.
The book appears in the ASSER International Sports Law Series, under the editorship of Dr Robert Siekmann and Dr Janwillem Soek.
I am deeply honoured and very pleased indeed to have been invited to write the Foreword to this book, especially as the great success of and excitement generated by the Beijing Olympics last Summer is still fresh in all our minds! This is the first work on this important subject - the Olympic Games having been well described as 'the greatest sporting show on earth' - and the author, Alexandre Miguel Mestre, a distinguished Portuguese international sports lawyer, is to be warmly congratulated on producing it. The book covers the historical development of 'Olympic Law' and the current legal status of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as an NGO (non-g- ernmental organisation) under Public International Law, and its various constituent members and organs. The UN resolutions on the Olympic Truce of which the latest one is published in the book, are of a recommendatory nature ('soft law'), but well illustrate the wide range of international legal instruments, which constitute the corpus of so-called 'Olympic Law', including the inter-State Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol - the famous five interconnected rings. The book also addresses some contemporary legal issues affecting the Olympic Movement, including eligibility criteria, dual participation in the Olympics and the Paralympics as well as environmental concerns and the protection of the so-called 'Olympic Properties' - in other words the valuable intellectual property rights of the IOC including TV rights - without which the Olympic Games could not be financed and staged.
