W&L Law’s Mark Drumbl on Anti-Doping Law Prof. Mark Drumbl commented in the Washington Post on a new U.S. anti-doping law that could have consequences for sporting events around the globe.
Washington and Lee law professor Mark Drumbl contributed to a Washington Post report on a new U.S. anti-doping law passed by Congress last year. Born out of a Russia doping scandal, the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act gives American prosecutors the authority to pursue anyone who conspires to cheat in major sporting events, including international events like the Olympics.
In the report, Drumbl explained some of the pros and cons of the effort, pointing to the importance of international cooperation required for enforcing extraterritorial laws. “These types of laws are helpful in terms of creating some kind of definition of the crimes. But their bark is often way worse than their bite. You can’t bring a case if you don’t have evidence. Without the transfer of people, information, witnesses, it leads to nothing.”
Drumbl explained that extraterritorial criminal laws require cooperation at almost every level.
“Without the cooperation of other states — if the harm occurred somewhere else, if the information you need is somewhere else, if the wrongdoers are somewhere else — it’s just going to be hard in a practical, logistical sense to bring a case. You need a lot of cooperation for this to work in a legal system. That’s the stuff that law makes more complicated. It’s not just politics. You’ve got to adhere to a whole set of standards.”
To read the full article, visit the Washington Post.
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