Legal Defences Against the Athlete’s Tort Liability

Abstract

An athlete may find themselves exposed to legal liability as a result of their conduct during the practice of sports, whether the liability arises from their own actions or from those of another party presumed to be under their custody, such as an animal or an inanimate object. In such cases, the athlete may be held civilly liable for any resulting damage, based either on presumed or proven fault. The legal mechanisms vary between conventional civil law methods-requiring the plaintiff to prove fault or the defendant to disprove it-and specific tools tailored to the nature of sports activity, such as proving an external cause that beaks the causal link between fault and damage, or demonstrating contributory negligence on the part of the victim. However, within the realm of sports, the athlete may reduce or even eliminate their liability through specific legal means, most notably the theory of risk acceptance, which serves as a distinguishing feature of sports activity compared to other civil obligations.