Guy Osborn

Regulating football: commodification consumption and the law

1. The Context and Development of Regulation 2. From Community Bulwark to Global Domination: The Football Club in Transition 3. Players, Power and Contracts 4. Men Behaving Badly: The Regulation of Conduct 5. Policing Racist Conduct 6. Totalled Football: Will Soccer Consume itself? Notes Index

London 2012 and the Impact of the UK's Olympic and Paralympic Legislation: Protecting Commerce or Preserving Culture?

The general commercial rights associated with the Olympic Movement are protected in the UK by the Olympic Symbols etc (Protection) Act 1995. In addition, the UK Government, in response to a requirement of the Host City Contract with the International Olympic Committee, created the London Olympic Association Right under section 33 and Schedule 4 of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act 2006. These provisions enable the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games to exploit, to the fullest extent, the commercial rights associated with the London Olympic Games. This article questions whether the IOCs requirement for legislative protection and state enforcement of the commercial rights are compatible with the Fundamental Principles of Olympism as defined in the Olympic Charter, and its stated aim of being a celebration of sporting endeavour, culture and education.

Contract and Control in the Entertainment Industry : Dancing on the Edge of Heaven

Contents: Introduction: Of human bondage. Entertainment, Control and Contestation: Selling soles, contract and control in football Rough trade, contract and control in the music industry A brutal aesthetic, contract and control in boxing Circus games, contract and control in cricket. Conclusion: Into the holy of holies.

Borders and Boundaries: Locating the Law in Film

The essay examines the emergence of law and film in the curricula of law schools in the context of Britain. It outlines the development of legal education in England and Wales and the relationship between legal education and training. It notes the broadening out of the syllabus to encompass more politicized courses taught within their socio-economic context like family law and labour law. From this shift of academic focus the politically contextual has extended to the cultural context. The relationship between law and culture both in literature and in other areas has been the end result of this relaxation of focus on professional education. Finally, the precise nature of law and film and its boundaries are discussed.

Risk and benefits in lifestyle sports: parkour, law and social value

ABSTRACT This paper examines the interrelationship between law and lifestyle sports, viewed through the lens of parkour. We argue that the literature relating to legal approaches to lifestyle sport is currently underdeveloped. Law is viewed as a largely negative presence, seen particularly in terms of the ways in which counter-cultural activities are policed and regulated, where such activities are perceived to be transgressive and undesirable. We argue that this is a somewhat unsophisticated take on how the law can operate, with law constructed as an outcome of constraints to behaviour (where the law authorises or prohibits), distinct from the legal contexts, environments and spaces in which these relationships occur. We examine specifically the interrelationship between risk and benefit and how the law recognises issues of social utility or value, particularly within the context of lifestyle sport. A case study is provided of the employment of claims to social value present in the advancing institutionalisation of parkour in the United Kingdom. Through the case study, the paper seeks to foreground a more nuanced position that moves away from user-centred constructions of law as an imposition toward an appreciation of how the law can be used to support and extend claims to space.

The Olympics, the Law and the Contradictions of Olympism

London 2012 promises many things.1 It is of course a truism that each edition of the Olympic Games promises to be an unrivalled sporting and cultural spectacle that is a genuinely global mega-event with unequalled penetration.2 At the same time, a central tenet of the rhetoric used in Candidate Cities’ bid documentation when trying to secure the hosting of the Games has focused upon a number of key, though less global, themes, many of which have revolved around the issue of legacy. Legacy has become a somewhat overused term, or in the words of the London Assembly’s tautology, a ‘hackneyed cliche’;3 however, Olympic bid narratives are riddled with such references. One of the key legacy issues in the London bid was that hosting the Games would improve sporting participation rates, with the Chairman of the London Organising Committee Lord Coe acknowledging that this claim was fundamental to the success of the bid. Further, the aim of creating a grassroots sporting legacy for Londoners through the provision of a vastly improved capital and coaching infrastructure has been specifically acknowledged and supported by the Mayor of London.4

Regulating sport: finding a role for the law?

How sport might be regulated in the future is a complex and complicated issue. This essay seeks to analyse, from a theoretical standpoint, the role of law in regulating sport in terms of both consumption and production of sport. It charts historical developments in boxing, football and cricket to examine this and hypothesizes as to potential future developments. In particular we analyse football in terms of consumptive issues and cricket in terms of participatory ones. We argue that both exhibit common characteristics in the relationship with law yet with a completely different structure, history, context and economy. Both are exhibiting characteristics of a global business eschewing national boundaries yet restricted by historical factors. It concludes that perhaps the law will have little role in the future landscape of sport in terms of consumption, but is likely to have significant impact in the commercial sphere.

The Impact of Film and Television on Perceptions of Law and Justice: Towards a Realisable Methodology

This chapter examines an issue which has attracted only limited attention in the literature on law and popular culture – namely, the impact of popular culture on public perceptions of law and justice. It examines the context in which the study of popular culture in relation to law has developed and its principal goals and the working assumptions of those engaged in this work. It examines work that has been carried out specifically on how perceptions of law and justice seem to be affected by popular culture. It notes some of the methodological issues that have emerged in these studies and goes on to look at what kinds of limitations are inherent in such kinds of work and how these might be addressed.

From Beyond the Grave: The Legal Regulation of Mediumship

In recent years there has been an increased interest in mediumship. This has been part of a broader fascination with paranormal issues that has been fostered by new modes of dissemination and communication. This article focuses upon attempts made by the criminal law to regulate mediums, and, in particular, the disjunction between the ‘genuine medium’ and the ‘vulnerable consumer’. It charts historical approaches of the law and provides a critique of the current legal landscape, including the new regulatory framework under the Unfair Commercial Practice Regulations 2008, and the possibility of an action under the Fraud Act 2006. It concludes that the law has continually struggled to adequately deal with this phenomenon, and that the current regime is likely to prove similarly ineffective given the fundamental conceptual legal problem of proving what may be un-provable.

Beyond Kolpak: European Union Law’s Unforeseen Contribution to the Movement of African Cricketers

Abstract The movement of professional cricketers from South Africa to England to play in County Cricket has expanded since the late 1960s. It became more attractive during the period of South African isolation and some players saw English cricket as a route to play at Test match level through changing national allegiance. This paper explores the role of law in facilitating movement in two ways. First, in the case of Greig, the attempt to ban players who chose to participate in the new commercial venture, World Series Cricket, was overturned. Second, in the Kolpak case a decision of the European Court of Justice paved the way for South Africans and Zimbabweans to abandon their national side and play in England as domestic players without the usual constraints applied to overseas players. The opportunity was taken by numerous players because of the political upheaval in cricket that was contemporaneously taking place in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. The movement of players caused concern in both South Africa and England and led to a re-consideration of the financial relationships between governing bodies and players.