CAS will be at the Games of the Olympiad

Lausanne, July 09, 2012 – Olympiad, The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will open an office in London in order to resolve all legal disputes which may arise during the Olympic Games. This special tribunal, called the CAS ad hoc Division, has been in operation at previous editions of the Olympic Games since Atlanta 1996. Such a tribunal was also created on the occasion of the Commonwealth Games, the UEFA European Football Championships and the FIFA World Cup.

The CAS ad hoc Division will provide all participants in the Games with free access to justice rendered within time limits that keep pace with the competition.

The tribunal for the Olympic Games in London will be presided over by Judge Juan Torruella (Puerto Rico) and Mr Gunnar Werner (Sweden), and composed of the following twelve arbitrators chosen for their expertise in arbitration/sports law: Mr Efraim Barak (Israel); Mr Michele Bernsaconi (Switzerland); Prof. Massimo Coccia (Italy); Mr Ricardo de Buen Rodriguez (Mexico); Mr Thomas Lee (Malaysia); Mr Stuart McInnes (UK); Mr Graeme Mew (UK/Canada); Mr Guédel Ndiaye (Senegal); Ms Maidie Oliveau (USA); Mr Sharad Rao (Kenya); Mr Martin Schimke (Germany); Mr Alan Sullivan (Australia).

The President and the twelve arbitrators have been selected by the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS), an independent body, under the aegis of which the CAS operates. The office in London will be headed by its Secretary General, Mr Matthieu Reeb. All members of the CAS ad hoc Division who will be present in London during the Games are either lawyers or professors specialized in sports law and arbitration. They are independent of the parties who appear before the CAS and apply a procedure (set out in the Arbitration Rules for the Olympic Games) that complies with fundamental principles of procedural fairness and due process.

Under the CAS rules applicable in London, if during the Olympic Games a participant or sports entity wishes to submit a dispute to the ad hoc Division under the terms of Rule 59 of the Olympic Charter, he/she/it must file a request with the CAS Court Office in London. The President of the ad hoc Division sets up a panel of three arbitrators and rapidly convenes a, hearing during which all parties, witnesses and potentially affected third parties are given the opportunity to express their legal arguments and to produce evidence. As a rule, the ad hoc Division renders its decisions within 24 hours.

This is made possible by specially designed logistics and organizational structures. The CAS will be operational in London from 17 July 2012 until 12 August 2012. The CAS offices in London will be located at:

Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane – London. W1K 7TN, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7399 8355. Fax: +44 (0) 20 7399 8454

The CAS is a permanent arbitration institution founded in 1984 and specialized in the resolution of sports law disputes. It has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, with decentralized offices in New York and Sydney, and Alternative Hearing Centres in Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Cairo. The CAS handles approximately 350 cases per year. —– CAS

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