PhD O.V. Dubrovin¹
PhD, Associate Professor Е.V. Titova¹
Dr.Hab., Associate Professor E.A. Cherepov¹
Dr.Biol. V.V. Erlikh^1
1South Ural State University (National Research University), Chelyabinsk

 

Keywords: sport laws, responsibility for anti-doping rules violations, interdisciplinary anti-doping education program, World Anti-doping Code, doping use evidence.

 

Background. Doping is ranked among the most serious global problems in modern elite sports. Doping is known to be of harmful effects on health and detrimental both to competitive accomplishments and modern sport values and tenets. The doping related issues shall be viewed on an integrated basis with every legal, psychological, medical, social and educational aspect taken into account. Policies and practices of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are of high research and practical interest and importance for the sport science and legislature. It should be noted, however, that the existing legislative grounds for and regulatory provisions of the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) and their practical application experiences are still rather contradictory and disputable [5, p. 53-86]. It is the interdisciplinary solutions for the doping related issues that are in high priority for the national decision-makers with a special emphasis on the policies to advance the anti-doping education in Russia.

Objective of the study was to analyze benefits of the interdisciplinary models for the anti-doping educational programs.

Study results and discussion. The existing regulatory framework for the national and international sport systems has been designed on a multi-componential basis [4]. Despite its formally (de jure) private status, WADA bears many public responsibilities including the doping control in every sport discipline and movement (including sport education to secure zero tolerance to doping i.e. anti-doping sport education) and its institutional responsibility for the global anti-doping standards – including the lists of prohibited agents and international technical standards for the doping tests and procedures. Despite the WADA Code being formally based on the private law, its legal nature is rather mixed in fact and cannot be qualified with purely private or public sport laws. The WADA Code provisions are proposed to be applied to build up the national anti-doping regulations [6]. The International Standard for Testing and Investigations (ISTI) is one more obligatory fundamental document applied for the purposes of the anti-doping activity regulation comprising an integral part of the WADC and the World Anti-Doping

Program. The amended and updated version of the ISTI of November 15, 2013 approved by the WADA Executive Board at the World Anti-Doping Conference in Johannesburg and put into effect on January 1, 2015 is currently effective.

It may be pertinent to make a special emphasis on the evolution of rules for the doping evidence and proofs. Initially the doping rules violations were subject to the private law effectively driven by a presumption of guilt with no respect to the In dubio pro reo and Nulla poena sine lege principles [7]. The new version of the WADC provides a revised interpretation of the responsibility for violation of the rules. As provided by Article 3.1 of the WADC, it is the relevant anti-doping agency that bears responsibility for the evidence and proof of every WADC violation, with every proof being acceptable including a violating individual confession, with serious revision of the decision-making mechanism applicable in every case of doping.

It is the Federal Law “On Physical Education and Sports in the Russian Federation” Article 26 that provides a legal definition of doping fully compliant with the relevant definition by WADC. The list of the doping agents and methods prohibited for use in the national sports is formed in compliance with the International Standards of WADA and approved by the relevant Federal executive agency reporting to the Government of the Russian Federation on the whole and Ministry of Sports in particular.

The Russian Anti-Doping Rules effective in the country since October 24, 2011 provide – in compliance with the former version of the WADC – the strict responsibility including every athlete’s responsibility for any prohibited substance, agent, metabolites and/or doping markers found in his/her doping test. Therefore, there was no need to prove the fact of the violator’s intention, error or negligence in the doping case including the fact of conscientious use of doping by an athlete when considering violations of the above Rules [1, p. 99]. This was the situation before November 2016 when new Article 230.1 was added to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation that spells out the responsibility for persuading an athlete into using some agent(s) and/or method(s) prohibited for use in the national sports; and Article 230.2 setting forth the responsibility for such a persuasion and use of the agent(s) and/or method(s) prohibited for use in the national sports.

It should be emphasized that the new provisions of the criminal law spell out the responsibility of not only the violating athlete but of his/her surrounding involved in the wrongdoing, with a special emphasis on the evidence of persuasion or compulsion in doping cases. This provision is particularly important for the reason that athletes are normally persuaded to doping use by their coaches, doctors, managers and other people involved in the precompetitive training process, whilst the athletes are not always aware of the fact that the agents they are persuaded to administer are qualified as doping [2, p. 97-105].

It should also be mentioned in the context of the doping prevention policies and practices that the new Russian legislation applies the notion of anti-doping provisions that mean the actions to prevent and control doping in the sports system with the leading role played by the modern anti-doping education services. Such services are of high demand by and benefit for both national athletes and sport federations. The relevant anti-doping educational programs are being developed and regulated by WADA in form of the issues recommended for studies. However, the anti-doping education curricula are still largely inconsistent, with the teaching methods, models and tools still indefinite – and this is the reason for the educational process inefficiency and, hence, for the high need for new theoretically grounded anti-doping education models and methods.

In opinions of the leading researchers and analysts, the anti-doping education must be designed on a systemic basis to give a due priority to the fair play principles, zero tolerance to doping and other violations of the common ethical standards in sports [3, p. 5]. It is the educational component of the national anti-doping policies and practices that plays a great role in the anti-doping culture formation in the young generation of athletes. It was in 2017 that the Ministry of Sports in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RusADA) acting on a Presidential commission have designed and approved the Anti-Doping Education Programs for every sport institution and establishment, including an Anti-Doping Distant Education Program intended to keep the trainees competent in the priority anti-doping policies and practices.

Similar anti-doping educational platforms have been implemented by the national Olympic committees and anti-doping agencies in many European countries and relevant international sport federations. Mass online education opportunities are offered by Coursera including its Doping: Sports, Organizations and Sciences training course developed and implemented at the Lausanna University faculty with the contributions from the best world experts in doping issues including those from the LAD-Lausanne-Switzerland, Sport Arbitration, WADA, and many international and national sport federations. The training course was designed using an interdisciplinary educational model with doping being interpreted and analyzed as a multifactor phenomenon. In early 2017, a mobile application Anti-Doping Pro supported by the Ministry of Sports of Russia and RusADA was offered for application in sports.

Conclusion. The proposed anti-doping educational model was designed by an interdisciplinary research laboratory based team including leading sport and legal experts, education specialists and sport federation analysts rather than a specific education division only.

 

References

1. Bulaevskiy B.A. Prezumptsiya viny kak osnovanie printsipa strogoy otvetstvennosti v antidopingovykh pravilakh [Presumption of guilt as a basis of  strict liability principle in anti-doping rules]. Zhurnal zarubezhnogo zakonodatelstva i sravnitelnogo pravovedeniya, 2012, no. 5, P. 99.

2. Koshaeva T.O., Yamasheva E.V. K voprosu ob ustanovlenii ugolovnoy otvetstvennosti za narusheniya zakonodatelstva o dopinge [On establishing criminal liability for violations of doping law]. Zhurnal rossiyskogo prava [Russian Law Journal], 2017, no. 6, pp. 97-105. DOI: 10.12737/article_59240bc20e4d83.47193420 (www.doi.org )

3. Soldatenkov F.N. Formirovanie tsennostnykh orientatsiy antidopingovoy napravlennosti v obrazovatel'nom protsesse studentov vuza fizicheskoy kul'tury [Formation of value orientations of anti-doping orientation in educational process of physical education university students]. Smolensk, 2011, P. 5.

4. Mitten M.J., Opie H. “Sports Law”: Implications for the Development of International, Comparative, and National Law and Global Dispute Resolution. In: Siekmann R., Soek J. (eds) Lex Sportiva: What is Sports Law? ASSER International Sports Law Series. T. M. C. 2012, Asser Press.

5. Platonov V. N. Doping in Olympic sport: signs of the crisis and ways to overcome it. Pedagogics, psychology, medical-biological problems of physical training and sports, 2016, no. 6, pp. 53-86.

6. Siekmann R.C.R. Anti-Doping Law in Sport: the Hybrid Character of WADA and the Human Rights of Athletes in Doping Cases (Proportionality Principle). In: Introduction to International and European Sports Law. ASSER International Sports Law Series. T. M. C. 2012, Asser Press.

 

Corresponding author: dov1974@mail.ru

 

Abstract

The study analyzes a variety of problems with concern to violations of the anti-doping laws in the interdisciplinary context. The valid provisions of the Russian anti-doping legislation are analyzed versus the relevant provisions of the World Anti-doping Code (WADC), with a special emphasis on the practical educational component of the anti-doping policies and practices in Russia. It is underlined that the anti-doping policies and practices in the national sports shall be based on a theoretically well-grounded progress of the anti-doping legislation and education. Model interdisciplinary anti-doping education programs designed to comply with the relevant (legal and sport) educational standards are offered for discussion. The educational model of our design offers an educational material formed by an interdisciplinary research laboratory based team including leading sport and legal experts, education specialists and sport federation analysts rather than a specific education division only.