Judicial oversight of sports associations in the Czech Republic – does the new Civil Code strike the right balance between autonomy and intervention?

In the Czech Republic (as in many other countries), sports normally govern their activities via a legally formed association. The right of association embodies certain principles, chief among which is “autonomy” - a characteristic that manifests itself principally in the separation of the association from the state. Yet while sports associations are essentially private, the exercise of their power is not completely outside of the supervisory jurisdiction of the courts. The extent to which courts can intervene in the decisions of a sports association is an interesting question, and one that has been discussed in previous LawInSport articles in relation to the UK (here1) and South Africa (here2).

This article examines the current position in the Czech Republic, the author’s home jurisdiction. It is a pertinent topic here, as the Government has recently introduced a new statutory regime that seems, on the evidence to date, to facilitate a greater degree of judicial intervention than was previously the case.