Swiss Arbitration Decisions

The decision is an interesting one because the Federal Tribunal annulled the jurisdictional award issued by the CAS on June 23, 2009. Those of you who receive Hansjörg Stutzer’s excellent newsletter will have read his comments and the case is most likely to be discussed in further legal writing in the months ahead.

This decision pertains to the case of the well-known cyclist Alejandro Valverde Belmonte. Since the case was all over the press, the Federal Tribunal took the somewhat unusual step to include the names of all the people involved.

As you will see, Belmonte was banned from competing in Italy for two years in a decision issued in May 2009, for an alleged doping violation. He challenged the decision in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

This decision of the Swiss Supreme Court is the third in the matter of the Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde Belmonte.

There was a first decision dated October 29, 2010 (4A_234/2010). The first Belmonte decision was quite interesting because it raised the issue of the degree of independence and impartiality expected from a party-appointed arbitrator.