Pathways for Sports Arbitration Mechanism to Promote the Rule of Law in Sports Association Governance

In the inaugural year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the General Administration of Sport of China implemented the “Year of Deepened Governance” initiative in accordance with the decision-making and deployment of the Central Committee of the CPC, striving to advance the modernization of the sports governance system and capacity. The 2022 amendment to the Sports Law established the legal framework for sports arbitration, inaugurating a new phase in the rule-of-law resolution of sports disputes. Drawing on the practice of China Commission of Arbitration for Sport (CCAS) arbitral awards, this article systematically examines the institutional foundations and practical logic through which sports arbitration promotes the rule-of-law governance of sports associations. Leveraging the distinctive features and core elements of the sports arbitration system-prioritizing recommendatory reasoning in awards while supplementing with negative outcomes, and adhering to the guidance of general legal principles-sports arbitration conducts legitimacy and reasonableness reviews of sports associations’ autonomous rules, thereby driving associations to refine their internal rule systems and regulate the boundaries of power exercise. This process has begun to reveal the latent institutional value of sports arbitration that transcends mere dispute resolution, achieving governance through arbitration. Building on these findings, the article constructs a concrete pathway comprising “ex ante compliance reinforcement, in-process adjudicative specification, and ex post feedback deepening”. Consequently, sports arbitration serves not only as a core instrument for implementing the “Year of Deepened Governance” initiative, but also as a solid rule-of-law foundation for the ultimate realization of the sports power strategy.