Legal Regulation of Sporting Labour Markets

By Braham Dabscheck and Hayden Opie

The sporting labour market has unique features and the regulation of the market has been transformed from one based on individualism to a collective form.

This process has been aided by courts finding various labour market rules - such as transfer systems, zoning and drafting - to be unreasonable restraints of trade. Leagues have 'embraced' player associations and collective agreements to protect such rules from legal attack. Alternatively, player associations have found other means to obtain recognition. This article examines major product market changes that have occurred in different sports and their impact on the labour market, various labour market rules developed by leagues and the response of the courts, machinations associated with the collectivist transformation, and selected topics in employment law of special relevance in the sports labour market.

(Australian Journal of Labour Law. vol. 16, no. 3 December 2003)