The Basketball Arbitral Tribunal’s policy on publishing written reasons – does it strike the right balance between speed & legal certainty?

On March 8, the first ever User Conference of the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal (BAT) was hosted in Munich, Germany. Wouter Janssens, founding partner at international boutique sports law firm CRESTA, participated in a round table discussion to tackle several topics from over a decade of BAT practice.

One of the key subjects discussed was the BAT’s policy on publishing written reasons when issuing awards. It’s an important matter to consider as written reasons can help to explain the Arbitrator’s thinking, allowing legal practitioners to analyse awards, deduce the general legal principles applied by the Arbitrator, and comprehend the decision in the context of underlying jurisprudence. On the other hand, written reasons imply higher arbitration costs (on average € 3,930 - three thousand, nine hundred and thirty Euros - for awards without, versus € 8,963 for awards with written reasons) and an extended duration of the proceedings1.