La funzione giurisdizionale nell’ordinamento sportivo internazionale tra strumenti privati e funzioni pubbliche

The discussion relating to competition or complementary between public justice and private justice raises interesting questions, for the international law scholar, when the peculiar way in which sport is organized is considered. Sport, in fact, has an intrinsic nature making it suitable for practice worldwide, irrespective of the boundaries of domestic legal orders, and the rules that govern it have by their nature an a-national character. Such peculiarity is relevant also when the judicial function in the sports legal order is examined. This function is indeed shared by distinct proceedings before different bodies: however, a basic distinction can be identified. In fact, in addition to proceedings before bodies internal to the sports organizations, acting as their organs, proceedings before entities external to those organizations play a relevant role. Those entities find themselves to be placed at a crossroads between sports organizations and domestic legal orders. The chief example for these entities is given by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which settles by way of arbitration sports related disputes. The examination of its procedures, of the law applied to the merits of the dispute and of the effects of CAS decisions, shows that the there is no opposition (to be solved in terms of competition or complementary) between public and private justice, as they appear to coincide: a private instrument (arbitration) performs a public function and confirms the peculiarity of the international sports legal order.