Everything you need to know about Sports Law — what the course covers, how it's structured, and what's expected of you.
Sports Law examines the legal frameworks that govern sport — from the governance structures that regulate competition, through to the contracts that bind athletes, the integrity rules that protect the game, and the commercial arrangements that fund it.
This course is designed and delivered by a practising sports lawyer. Every topic is grounded in the real legal issues that arise in the sports industry, not just academic theory. You'll study the law through the lens of actual disputes, real contracts, and genuine regulatory challenges.
The course is delivered entirely online through this platform. Lectures are pre-recorded and available on demand. Tutorials are conducted live via Zoom each week.
Sports Law is taught across five modules, each featuring between one and three pre-recorded lectures and one live tutorial. The modules move progressively from the foundations of how sport is governed, through disputes, athlete contracts, integrity regulation, and the commercial architecture that funds the entire system.
Eight fault-line tensions run through every module in this course. These aren't abstract concepts — they are the live, recurring dilemmas that shape how sport is governed, regulated, and contested. You'll encounter them again and again across different topics, and learning to identify and navigate them is central to thinking like a sports lawyer.
Almost every lecture in this course follows a consistent seven-part structure. This isn't just organisational — it's pedagogical. The architecture is designed to move you from context to application, from doctrine to critique, and from understanding the law as it is to thinking about what it should be.
Tutorials are live, interactive online sessions held on Wednesday evenings (6:00–8:00pm). They're where the course comes to life — where you move from watching and reading to doing, debating, and applying.
Each tutorial is tied to a specific module and is designed to put the lecture content into practice. You'll work with real sporting documents — governance constitutions, collective bargaining agreements and player contracts, anti-doping policies and integrity codes, and commercial contracts including sponsorship and media rights agreements. You'll analyse actual cases, draft arguments, and engage in structured discussion with your classmates and lecturer. The emphasis is on practical, skills-based learning — the kind of work that prepares you for legal practice, not just exams.
All tutorials are recorded and available to watch afterwards, but attending live is strongly encouraged. The interactive nature of these sessions — group work, live polling, Q&A — means you'll get far more from being there in real time.
This course includes two assessment items: a written plea exercise focusing on the Sandpapergate disciplinary scenario, and a final examination. All submissions are made through eLearning.
Prepare a written submission as either a plea of mitigation (if representing the Player) or a plea of aggravation (if acting as Counsel Assisting) in the Sandpapergate disciplinary scenario. You will be assigned a specific player and role.
This assessment requires you to review and analyse a set of commercial sporting documents — a Sponsorship Agreement, a Media Rights Agreement, and a Collective Bargaining Agreement — and respond to a series of questions with reasoned legal analysis.
