Western Law professor Richard McLaren, a prolific arbitrator at both the Winter and Summer Olympics, can now add international basketball to his lengthy list of sports-related accomplishments.
A key player in the groundbreaking Mitchell Report regarding the use of steroids in Major League Baseball, McLaren has been appointed president of the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal.
Established by the Geneva-based International Basketball Federation (FIBA) in 2006, the tribunal provides services for the resolution of disputes between players, agents and clubs through arbitration.
“It’s a tremendous honour to lead this important tribunal,” McLaren says. “We expect the numbers of cases to double over the next two years and I look forward to growing the organization.”
McLaren has extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, arbitration and mediation, with a focus on elite and professional sports. He has been an arbitrator for many high-profile cases involving famous athletes in numerous sports.
He has adjudicated disputes as chair or co-arbitrator for organizations such as AAA/North American CAS; Olympic Games; Commonwealth Games; ITF, ATP & WTA Tennis; PGA and European Tour in golf; NHL, NHLPA player-agent disputes and ICC in cricket.
FIBA, the world governing body for basketball, is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. The International Olympic Committee recognizes it as the sole competent authority in basketball.
“Professional basketball is hugely popular in Europe,” McLaren adds. “It’s also experiencing rapid growth in other countries such as China and Saudi Arabia. And the tribunal is growing to meet these demands.”
Since its inception, the tribunal has handled 190 cases and another one hundred cases are expected to be heard in 2011.
According to McLaren, the basketball arbitral tribunal is one of the few dispute resolution systems in the world that operate on a real-time virtual basis with 99 per cent of cases handed with an online system.
“It’s a model of how to provide access to justice and deliver fast and well- reasoned disputes,” McLaren says. “The tribunal makes the sport run more effectively and players, agents and clubs are dealt with quickly and fairly.
“When you have a good dispute resolution in place you don’t end up with the kind of impasse problems you see in other professional sports, and that’s quite an achievement.”
