Birdthistle spent much of his life immersed in soccer cultures—he is Irish and, before coming to the United States for college, spent much of his life growing up in Libya (eight years) and Malaysia (nine years). This led him to think about how the World Cup, soccer more generally, and sports still more generally are affected by how various rules are enforced within each sport. He blogged about these subjects for us in 2007, and I’m glad to have him here again to blog about this year’s World Cup and the law-of-sports issues that surround it (and sports generally).
In his first post (“Mooting le mondial”), Birdthistle introduces the richness of the legal issues at play the World Cup:
Over the next four weeks and 64 matches, I look forward to using the World Cup as a lens to examine the internal jurisprudence of soccer as well as the external legal baggage surrounding the phenomenon of global football. Internally, soccer has inspired academics to consider topics such as the efficacy of crossing the ball and how best to miss penalties. In my own work, I’ve wondered whether the limited set of referees’ rewards and punishments exacerbates incentives for the melodramatic deception so prevalent in World Cup play. Externally, soccer generates a reliable and entertaining array of cultural and legal clashes over topics such as free speech, criminal justice, and the political economy of governing institutions. With billions of dollars and eyeballs focused upon Brazil for the next month, the tournament should provide a captivating performance of humanity at its athletic best and litigious worst.
Read the rest of the post at the The Volokh Conspiracy, and check back soon for more.
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