Back on Track 2: The Principles of Corrective Justice for Performance Enhancing Malpractice in Sports

Abstract

The first version of this article appeared on the Social Science Research Network more than five years ago. At the time, Andrea Carska-Sheppard, Paul Weiler, and Jim Medford suggested an interdisciplinary debate to bring about solutions urgently needed in the area of performance enhancing malpractice in sports. This was before the Congressional investigations on steroid use, which brought public scrutiny to professional sports. While our society deals (with varying success) with other types of offenses by providing perpetrators with means of support and rehabilitation, we noted there is very little systematic support available to athletes who are suspended for performance enhancing malpractice. The article offered a debate on the legal model that would provide corrective justice and rehabilitation for these types of wrongdoing. In order to create a legal model the authors turned to Professor Weiler’s proposed medical malpractice theory and applied it to performance enhancing malpractice. The World Antidoping Agency (WADA) has now adopted its revised Anti-Doping Code and the time has come to revisit our article and the proposed model. What the authors found is that, despite of the passage of time, their proposal is still timely and calls for the attention of all stakeholders. Though the new Anti-Doping Code sheds light on various aspects of doping prosecution and education, it is silent as to the rehabilitation and assistance provision to athletes implicated in doping. The concept of offering a systematic assistance model to the wrongdoers relates to the morality of current and future generations, which cannot be ignored. Instead it is time for the stakeholders to review and examine the model proposed in this article, which would assist athletes and enhance corrective principals in doping malpractice management.