Lithuanian Courts Will Recognize And Enforce The Sports Arbitration Awards

The disputes arising from sport relations are very particular and because of that - most often settled in specialized courts of sport arbitration. For an arbitral award to be enforceable in Lithuania it has to be recognized by the national courts. Normally, the non-recognition of a foreign arbitration award is rare both in Lithuania and internationally. However, a recent decision adopted by the Lithuanian Court of Appeal in 2010 painted a picture that in Lithuania the arbitration awards regarding a dispute arising between a professional sportsman and a sport club will not be recognized and enforced at all.

Qualification of sports relation

In the mentioned decision (case No 2T-164/2010) the Court of Appeal ruled that a dispute which arose from a claim by the basketball player to a sport club to pay remuneration should be qualified as a labour dispute. According to the Lithuanian Law on Commercial...