Labor Relations in Professional Sports Leagues: International trends from the 2000s

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25301006
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Sports science
• Research Institution: Doshisha University
• Principal Investigator: KAWAI KEIJI 同志社大学, 政策学部, 教授 (50310701)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: プロスポーツ / 労使関係 / 反トラスト法 / 競争法 / 労働法 / 大学スポーツ / 労働組合 / 団体交渉

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, I studied the background of the development of labor relations in the professional league from the view point of international comparison by researching literature and interviewing researchers, practitioners, and those involved. A new system based on collective bargaining which follows the labor law and social dialogue was adopted in all targeted countries. The adoption of the new system was triggered by the judicial case of illegality of the transfer system such as reserve clauses. Simultaneously, the autonomy of labor relations or autonomy of sports were respected and as a result, judicial intervention based on competition law and contract doctrine became controlled. It was revealed that the establishment of such labor relations had influenced greatly and changed the decision making process in the world of sports.

Free Research Field

スポーツ法