Pliant Bodies: Generic event laws and the normalisation of the exceptional

James, Mark and Osborn, Guy (2019) Pliant Bodies: Generic event laws and the normalisation of the exceptional. Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Journal. ISSN 1833-8852

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Abstract

This piece focuses on event management legislation, specifically generic legislation, and argues for a more measured, collaborative and mutual approach to its creation. The emergence of generic major event management legislation is the il/logical endpoint of the previously iterative development of event-specific protective laws. The protections offered to international sports federations by such pliant states are increasingly wide-ranging and often subvert Parliamentary oversight. By analysing the problems caused by this evolving phenomenon, it will be argued that the relationship between rights holder and host needs to be recalibrated. Using principles derived from relational contract theory, a mutually beneficial, reciprocal, approach is proposed as one possible method to aid recalibration.