Transnational sports law The living Lex Sportiva

This chapter focuses on the emergence of a transnational sports law, or lex sportiva, ruling international sports. In the transnational law literature, the lex sportiva is often referred to as a key example, but rarely studied in practice. Yet, it constitutes an important playground for transnational legal practice, and this chapter aims to show why. The focus is first on the ensemble of rules of the lex sportiva produced through a variety of lawmaking procedures located within different institutions. The second section identifies the processes and institutions making the lex sportiva in its daily practice. Finally, while the lex sportiva is often presented as an autonomous transnational legal construct detached from territorialized legal and political contexts, the this section of the chapter aims to show that in practice it operates in intimate connection with them. Hence, its transnational operation is much less characterized by full autonomy than assemblage.