IRELAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Tim O’Connor, The Bar of Ireland
Where It Will Go Lawyers hate making predictions, because pre - dictions can be wrong, even when every care has been taken. It is also part and parcel of lawyer - ing that you have to make predictions for clients even though they can be wrong. At a point in time where the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has added so much uncertainty into sports law across Europe, this is a particu - larly acute problem. However, in an Irish context, we can lean towards certain reasonably based predictions. First, that the market exists means that there is good reason for those who have been working towards this point to keep pushing to deepen and widen the market. Where investments are made, trends are reinforced; it being harder to abandon that on which money has been spent. Those firms and businesses that have set up in the Irish market in sports law have an incentive to make it work, because they have invested in the market. The increase in outreach is already noticeable and significant, and this in turn means that awareness among consumers can increase and drive the market further. Second, if developments abroad seem to have had a key effect in crystallising the market, it seems likely they will continue to have a driv - ing effect. Ireland’s position as an Anglophone, common law and EU jurisdiction features regu - larly as part of the pitches for investment in all sorts of areas. Sports law is unlikely to be the outlier. This is particularly so when the case law of the CJEU seems to be turning an increasingly cold eye towards sports law, as this can affect the operation of sport within the EU being conduct -
ed in areas entirely outside the writ of EU law. The effect of ISU on arbitration may soon fade if the CJEU follows the view of the Advocate General in the case of Royal Football Club Sera - ing (Case C-600/23), which proposed that sports law arbitrations must be subject to review by courts applying EU law. If, as it seems to be, the Court of Justice is pushing for what one might almost describe as an onshoring in the EU of sports law that can effect EU law markets, then the steps taken by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in regard to Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) arbitrations would seem to be the model for what could be done. A path that has been walked before is easier for the next person to follow. There is no question that this will not be pushed, hard, in the coming years. Third, these together create an incentive for more international firms to open branches in Ireland to take advantage of possible changes. It would be surprising not to see more UK firms, at the least, moving into this area over the next few years, and this in turn will build the range of services on offer from a wider range of provid - ers – again making it a more tempting option. Conclusion As with any exercise in trying to pick a winner, no matter how much attention you pay to the background, the form or the going, your choice can still be incorrect. The inherent risk does not go away. That said, the exercise still remains the best form guide and the best predictor of where the winner might be. We cannot, then say for certain that the Irish sports law market may not be a guaranteed big winner; but we can now say that it is at the races.
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