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The legal implications of rugby injuries

Sports law in South Africa is a field requiring exciting and intensive research. With so many sporting codes changing their status to professional sport, intensive research on the legal implications pertaining to each professional sporting code has also become necessary. Professional rugby in South Africa has grown into a multimillion rand industry. It is an industry whose role players need specialized legal advice on a multitude of issues. This dissertation addresses the legal issues arising out of the situation where a professional player is injured, during practice or a game, due to the intentional or negligent action of another. The medico-legal aspects of rugby, relating to causation and proof of injuries are an indispensable element of proving liability where rugby injuries are concerned. These aspects are crucial in assessing the criminal and delictual liability of players, coaches, referees, team physicians and even the union concerned. The problem of rugby violence, causing injury, is addressed by both the criminal law and the law of delict with the issue of consent being central to this discussion. Furthermore, the labour law implications can be far-reaching for both the player and the employer union due to the unique features of sport as an industry. All role players in professional rugby will have to cooperate with the legal community to ensure that a practical body of law is established in order to make rugby a safer sport for all concerned and to protect the professional player from unnecessary, incapacitating injury.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:11058
Date January 2003
CreatorsViljoen, Erna
PublisherUniversity of Port Elizabeth, Faculty of Law
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Masters, LLM
Format181 pages, pdf
RightsNelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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