European Court of Human Rights ruled in Mutu and Pechstein case 9 October 2018

The ECHR decided that there had been no violation of the right to a fair trial regarding Adrian Mutu. Nevertheless, the right to a fair trial had been violated in the case of Claudia Pechstein, with regard to the lack of a public hearing before the CAS. The CAS arbitration proceedings were required to offer all the safeguards of a fair hearing. Therefore, the ECHR rejected Pechstein’s allegations concerning a structural absence of independence and impartiality of the CAS, like Mutu’s criticisms concerning the impartiality of certain arbitrators. On the other hand, the ECHR decided that the questions concerning the merits of the sanction imposed on Pechstein for doping, discussed before the CAS, required a hearing that was subject to public scrutiny.

The CAS, as "the highest court of sport" will be in the heart of our discussion at the 2019 summer school. Our academic director, Jan Exner, published his first thoughts on the judgment (in Czech) here. One of our guest lecturers, Antoine Duval, often discusses the CAS and its independence. Follow his twitter.