Highlights

Written by Martin Skladany, Professor of Law at Pennsylvania State University. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”), the international governing body of soccer, cannot control what happens off the field. Infamously, Honduras and El Salvador in 1969 went to war partially over the results of a football match between their respective national teams, leading to the death of thousands of individuals. FIFA has the power to minimize violence on the field, but it has instead created a fair-play tiebreaker rule for World Cup tournaments that at times encourages physical harm.  It sounds counter-intuitive that a rule meant to incentivize fair play […]

Written by Gurtaran Johal. The stripping of Jordan Chiles’ bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics will leave a substantial impact on the future of sports arbitration. During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Jordan Chiles competed in the Gymnastics Floor Final. Initially, she received a total score of 13.666, which put her in fifth place. However, after Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, submitted an inquiry, contending that the judges did not accurately score her routine’s difficulty level, her score increased to 13.766. This automatically propelled her into third place, garnering her the bronze medal. With Rebeca Andrade and Simone Biles in first and […]

Written by Nefertari Elshiekh. The fatal shooting on the “Rust” movie set has resulted in many civil and criminal cases and has had far reaching implications throughout Hollywood.  It has been just over three years since a prop gun killed cinematographer Haylna Hutchins on the film set of “Rust” in New Mexico. Several people involved with the movie production faced criminal and civil liability for the shooting, including Alec Baldwin, the star and producer of “Rust.” Baldwin had the prop gun in his hand when it fired, but he claims the gun went off without him firing it. In July 2024, […]

Written by Ahan Dhar. The controversy surrounding an Athlete’s gender at the Paris Olympics leads us to wonder: when does online discourse become targeted bullying? “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.” These were the words of J.K. Rowling in response to an image of Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This picture depicted the now-viral moment after Khelif defeated her […]

Written by Shayna Toh. Behind the scenes of reality TV, producers and contestants have faced their own fair share of scandals over fairness of contracts. But what comes next? Bachelor Nation was rocked last month during the latest “After the Final Rose” finale, which saw the newest Bachelorette, Jennifer Tran—notably the series’ first Asian-American lead—sitting in front of a live audience with her now ex-fiancé. Distraught and sobbing, she explained how he had ended their engagement and relationship shortly after cameras stopped rolling. When asked if the producers could play the clip of their now-doomed proposal, she responded: “Do I have […]

Written by Hugh Reynolds. The high-profile copyright suit raises questions about fair use, parody, and the extent to which musicians can build off one another. Miley Cyrus was sued in the United States District Court for the Central District of California for her Grammy award-winning single “Flowers.”  The plaintiff, Tempo Music Investment, is alleging copyright infringement, claiming Cyrus copied the Bruno Mars song “When I Was Your Man.” More than two dozen music publishers and companies were named as defendants, including Apple, Sony Music Entertainment, and Live Nation. The plaintiff acquired a share of the copyright in the Mars track in […]

By Edwin A. Farley Download the article here: Breaking the Broadcast Huddle: How College Football Conferences’ Bundling of Broadcast Rights Could Harm Student Athletes. Recent realignment activity between collegiate athletic conferences reveals how the sale of broadcast rights and the treatment of student athletes, including their compensation, are connected. The pursuit of greater revenue from broadcast rights for college football games has been the driving factor behind conference realignment. In practice, realignment has meant consolidation. As schools consolidate into fewer, larger conferences, they will also have more power to suppress student athletes’ compensation—itself an uncertain area developing at breakneck pace. In Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n v. […]

By Nefertari Elshiekh On March 5th, Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team voted 13-2 to become the first college sports team to unionize–a historic step toward recognizing college athletes as employees. However, their legal battle is far from over. National Relations Labor Board (“NLRB”) Regional Director Laura A. Sacks found that Dartmouth athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) because of the compensation they receive, which comes in the form of preferential admissions to the school, basketball shoes they receive each season (totaling $1,200 in value), and the tickets they are given each game. In exchange, the players play for […]