The article is devoted to the development and current state of scientific research and the teaching of sports law at the Faculty of Law of Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University.

This article investigates the growing crisis of accountability, corruption, and governance failure in modern sports law, with particular attention to the role of international sports governing bodies and their impact on Global South states. The primary objective is to examine how the legal autonomy of sports institutions has enabled systemic governance weaknesses, and to assess whether existing legal frameworks adequately address corruption, human rights harms, and power imbalances affecting athletes and host communities.
The study adopts a doctrinal and comparative legal methodology, analysing international sports governance structures alongside domestic legal frameworks, with a focused case study on South Africa. It draws on constitutional principles, legislation, and case law to evaluate how national legal systems can respond to governance failures within transnational sport. The article also engages interdisciplinary scholarship on mega-events, corruption, and regulatory theory to situate sports governance within broader debates on transnational private power. The findings reveal that corruption and governance failures in sport are structural rather than incidental, rooted in concentrated decision-making power, weak oversight, and regulatory exceptionalism. South Africa’s constitutional and administrative law jurisprudence demonstrates that sporting autonomy cannot displace the rule of law, offering a model for enhanced accountability in the Global South. Practically, the article underscores the need for legally enforceable transparency measures, human rights due diligence, and stronger judicial oversight. It concludes that restoring the integrity and legitimacy of global sport requires embedding sports governance within robust legal accountability frameworks aligned with constitutional and human rights norms.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the legal regulation mechanism of relations in the sphere of sports1. Special attention is paid to the peculiarities of applying “softlaw” norms2, which are reflected in the corporate and local acts of sports organizations. The authors note that at the current stage of the sports industry’s development in the Russian Federation, it is softlaw instruments and contractual mechanisms of self-regulation that play a key role and form the core in the system of regulating sports relations. An analysis of the legal nature of corporate (local) normative acts is conducted, leading to the conclusion that, in parallel with public (or, in other words, state) regulation of the studied relations —ensuring a balance between public and private law interests — a system of rules known in scientific literature as “Lex Sportiva” has organically “integrated” and interacts with it. This system effectively serves as an independent regulator of private relations in the field of sports (sports relations). Today, Lex Sportiva is one of the primary legal instruments ensuring the protection and defense of the rights of subjects in both professional sports and high-performance sports.

Sports disputes have distinctive characteristics, primarily due to the commercialization of high-performance sport. With the ever-increasing commercialization, the number of organizations that resolve disputes arising in the sports is growing. Disputes arising in professional sports can be resolved (excluding mediation) through state or arbitration courts, as well as by the jurisdictional bodies of sports federations1. In order to select a form of resolution of sports disputes that best suits the specifics of sports legal relations, it seems highly relevant to study the theoretical and practical aspects associated with methods of conflict resolution in the sports environment. Focusing on international arbitration, this article adopts a practice-oriented approach, adding theoretical support whenever necessary. The reader will thus find the answers to questions as “What are the advantages and disadvantages of arbitration within the sporting context?” or “Will the arbitral tribunal grant a specific type of interim measures?” With this practice-oriented approach, the author hope that this article will provide helpful guidance to practitioners and professional athletes.

To determine the legal basis for the use of musical works in high-performance sports, problematic issues that require regulation, to identify their development prospects based on well-known cases in this area, to suggest possible ways to resolve disputes in connection with the implementation of licensing agreements granting an athlete the right to put a competitive program for a particular piece of music.