Major event legislation: Lessons from london and looking forward

Prior to hosting an event such as the Olympic Games, the host state passes a variety of legislative and administrative acts in support of the event. However, the efficacy of these acts is rarely remarked upon. This article undertakes a cursory examination of the legislation passed by the United Kingdom in advance of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. This article briefly examines the content of the legislation, and some of the problems encountered by the legislation. However, recent events should be re-orienting the discussion on mega-event legislation. Corruption, displacement of persons, and labour and human rights concerns show that the current structure of mega-event legislation is insufficient to address the problems posed by emerging states as hosts of sporting mega-events. Mega-event legislation, as currently constructed using London as an example, does not address any of these concerns. Mega-event legislation is merely sufficient to address the concerns it is currently targeted towards, but is clearly unable to address the concerns facing newer hosts. The failure to address these issues, by governments, or by sporting bodies, will lead to further problems, and could endanger the sport event itself.

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