<p class="reg-lead">The current edition of the Code of Sports-related Arbitration, in force as from 1 July 2025; the facsimile was removed from the Code, the time limit for issuing an appeal award was changed from "three months after the transfer of the file" to "no later than four months after the closing of the evidentiary proceedings", and the amount in dispute was added to the criteria for the appointment of a Sole Arbitrator.</p>
<table class="reg-facts">
<tr><td>In force as from</td><td><b>1 July 2025</b> — under Article R67</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adopting body</td><td>International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS) — under Article S6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Structure</td><td>26 Statutes articles (S1 to S26) + 44 Procedural Rules articles (R27 to R70)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Status</td><td><strong>Current edition</strong> — governing proceedings commenced as from 1 July 2025</td></tr>
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<h2>What is the Code of Sports-related Arbitration?</h2>
<p>The Code of Sports-related Arbitration of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) brings two instruments together in a single text: the <strong>Statutes of the Bodies Working for the Settlement of Sports-related Disputes</strong> (Articles S1 to S26), which establish and organise the International Council of Arbitration for Sport and the Court itself, and the <strong>Procedural Rules</strong> (Articles R27 to R70), which govern the ordinary arbitration procedure, the appeal arbitration procedure and mediation. The Court is seated in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its awards may be challenged, subject to the conditions laid down in Swiss law, within thirty days before the Swiss Federal Tribunal only.</p>
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<h2>About the July 2025 edition<span class="reg-tag">Changes from the February 2023 edition</span></h2>
<h3>Key changes from the previous edition</h3>
<ol class="reg-tl">
<li><b class="t">Time limit for issuing the operative part of an appeal award</b>The most significant practical change for clients. Previously, the operative part of the award had to be communicated <strong>within three months of the transfer of the file to the Panel</strong>, and the President of the Appeals Division could extend that time limit upon a reasoned request from the President of the Panel to four months after the closing of the evidentiary proceedings. The rule is now simple and uniform: the operative part of the award must be communicated to the parties <strong>no later than four months after the closing of the evidentiary proceedings</strong>. The difference lies in the starting point of the calculation; the time limit no longer runs from the moment the file is transferred, but from the end of the evidentiary phase.</li>
<li><b class="t">Removal of the facsimile from the Code</b>References to <strong>facsimile (fax)</strong> have been removed throughout the text. Awards, orders and other decisions are now notified <strong>by courier and/or electronic mail</strong>, correspondence to the Court Office is likewise sent by those same two means, and in the list of contact details of the parties' representatives, "telephone and facsimile numbers" has been reduced to <strong>"telephone number"</strong> alone.</li>
<li><b class="t">Internal clerk alongside the ad hoc clerk</b>The expression "ad hoc clerk" has been changed to <strong>"internal or ad hoc clerk"</strong>; that is, the Court may also appoint a clerk from among its own staff to assist the Panel. The clerk's fees are, as before, included in the arbitration costs.</li>
<li><b class="t">Amount in dispute in the appointment of a Sole Arbitrator</b>In determining whether an appeal case is to be submitted to a three-member Panel or to a Sole Arbitrator, the President of the Division previously assessed only the circumstances of the case, including whether or not the Respondent had paid its share of the costs. The <strong>"amount in dispute"</strong> is now expressly one of the criteria as well.</li>
<li><b class="t">Express duty to expedite the proceedings</b>A new sentence has been added to the Code: <strong>"The Panel shall ensure that the proceedings are conducted expeditiously and efficiently."</strong> This duty is repeated in both the ordinary arbitration procedure and the appeal arbitration procedure.</li>
<li><b class="t">Enforceability of the award from the date of communication of the operative part</b>It is now expressly stated that the award is enforceable <strong>from the date of communication of the operative part</strong> by courier and/or electronic mail; that is, enforcement does not require waiting for the full reasoned text of the award.</li>
<li><b class="t">Binding effect of the procedural calendar agreed by the parties</b>In expedited proceedings, <strong>the time limits and the procedural calendar agreed by the parties are binding on the Court</strong>, provided they have been approved beforehand by the President of the Division or by the Panel.</li>
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<div class="reg-note"><strong>Scope of the amendments:</strong> the amendments in this edition are limited to Articles R30, R31, R40.3, R44.4, R46, R50, R54, R59, R64.4 and R67.</div>
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<h2>Who this document matters to</h2>
<p>Every case that reaches international arbitration from international federations, national Olympic committees or anti-doping organisations ultimately arrives at this text: clubs and federations in transfer disputes and financial claims, athletes facing a disciplinary decision or a doping suspension, and clients and sports lawyers drafting appeal briefs and observing time limits. The point that is decisive in practice: under Article R67, each proceeding is governed by the edition that was in force <strong>on the date the proceeding was commenced</strong>, not by the edition published today. Pending cases likewise remain subject to the previous Code, unless both parties request the application of the new one. For that reason, access to the text of previous editions has practical importance.</p>
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Download the Code 2025, in force as from 1 July 2025

<p class="reg-lead">Amendments to the Code of Sports-related Arbitration, in force from 1 January 2019 — the full text of the Statutes of the Bodies Working for the Settlement of Sports-related Disputes, namely the International Council of Arbitration for Sport and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.</p>

<table class="reg-facts">
<tr><td>In force from</td><td><b>1 January 2019</b></td></tr>
<tr><td>Contains</td><td>The full text of the Statutes of the Bodies (Articles <b>S1 to S26</b>) and the amended Articles of the Procedural Rules</td></tr>
<tr><td>Two bodies</td><td>The International Council of Arbitration for Sport (<b>ICAS</b>) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (<b>CAS</b>)</td></tr>
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<h2>What is this document?</h2>
<p>The Code of Sports-related Arbitration has two parts: the Statutes of the Bodies, numbered with the letter S, and the Procedural Rules, numbered with the letter R. The present document contains the full text of the Statutes — Articles S1 to S26 — together with the amendments to the Procedural Rules that entered into force on 1 January 2019.</p>
<p>Article S1 is the starting point and establishes two institutions: the <strong>International Council of Arbitration for Sport</strong>, whose task is to safeguard the independence of the Court and the rights of the parties, and the <strong>Court of Arbitration for Sport</strong>, which resolves sports-related disputes through arbitration and mediation. The subsequent articles determine the composition, powers and working methods of each.</p>
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<h2>Amended Articles of the Procedural Rules</h2>
<p>The amendments in this edition concentrate on a number of Articles of the Procedural Rules that are the most frequently applied in practice: <strong>R27</strong> (scope of application), <strong>R34 and R35</strong> (challenge and replacement of an arbitrator), <strong>R43</strong> (confidentiality), <strong>R46</strong> (award), <strong>R57</strong> (the Court's power to review the merits on appeal), <strong>R59</strong> (award in appeal proceedings), and <strong>R64 and R65</strong> (costs of the arbitration).</p>
<p>For a party to proceedings, two provisions matter more than the rest: R57, which allows the Court to examine the case afresh and in full rather than merely to review the first-instance decision; and R64 and R65, which determine who bears the cost of the proceedings — in disciplinary and financial cases, the difference between these two provisions is the difference between low-cost and high-cost proceedings.</p>
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<h2>Who this document matters to</h2>
<p>Any athlete, club or federation whose case reaches the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and any lawyer who takes on such a case, must know the text governing at the time the claim is brought. This edition is the text governing cases in 2019, and for later cases the subsequent edition must be ascertained.</p>
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Court of Arbitration for Sports

Download the Code 2025, in force as from 1 July 2025

Amendments to the Code of Sports-related Arbitration