Jurisprudence Study On The Existing Problems Of The Judicial Review Of The CAS Awards In The View Of The Cases

The Court of Arbitration for Sport is the most authoritative sport arbitrationorganization. With the reform and development of recent years, the arbitrationmechanism of the CAS becomes more and more mature. In the field in arbitration forsport, the awards of the CAS have great authority and binding.However, the CAS is an arbitration institution essentially. Its awards are mustalso subject to the judicial review of national courts. According to the CAS provisionsof the Constitution, the place of all of the CAS awards is the place of CAS, it meansLausanne, Switzerland. Therefore, the power of judicial review of the CAS awards isbelongs to the Swiss Federal Tribunal. In the early time of judicial review practice, theCAS’s decisions were always supported by the Swiss Federal Tribunal. But in recentyears, with the cases increasing, the Swiss Federal Tribunal is no longer inclined tomaintain the authority of the CAS. So there were jurisprudences that CAS’s rulingswere revoked by the Swiss Federal Tribunal.These cases give concrete expression to many problems that existed in theprocess of judicial review of the CAS’s rulings by the Swiss Federal Tribunal. In thecase of A v. WADA, there were the disputes understanding of the provisions onspecific rules and CAS jurisdiction. In the case of Spain football club v Portugalfootball club, there were procedural issues that respondent replied overtime, and therewere substantive issues that the CAS’s ruling had been revoked without good reasons.the“res judicata” legal principle had not been applied appropriately. In the case ofCanas v. Association of Tennis Professional, the Swiss Federal Tribunal improperlyrevoked CAS’s decision on the case. In the case of Meca-Medina v. Commission ofthe European Union, the Swiss Federal Tribunal’s jurisdiction had been violated, etc.To solve these problems, the author believes that we can study from two aspectsto be improved: on institutional level, the principles of interpretation of the rules mustbe clear, the standard of CAS jurisdiction must be determined, strict procedures forjudicial review of arbitral awards must be followed and the facts and legal issues mustbe comprehensive reviewed. On rule level, the jurisdiction of judicial review of theCAS’s rulings must be unified and, a global sports-law mechanism must beestablished. Through the study of these issues, the value of the CAS arbitration can be bettermanifested, sporting events can be held more smoothly, the Swiss Federal Tribunal’sjudicial review can play a better role. All this shows that the study of the judicialreview of the CAS’s awards in view of the cases is still of great practical significance.China’s system of arbitration for sport and judicial review system of sport arbitration,no matter whether it is in practice or in theory, can learn from foreign experiences andresearches to better promote the development of the cause of arbitration for sport.