Human Rights and Horses: Problematising challenges to sports governing bodies under Article 6 – Equestrianism, a case study

The paper will consider the jurisprudence which seems to establish that Art. 6 has no applicability because SGBs are not public bodies. The paper re-examines the issues in the light of Dawn Oliver's work casting doubt on the importance of the public/private divide and considering the emergence of human rights themes in private law claims. Given the allegations of inept practice/corruption currently circulating in the governance of equestrian sport and the way that, for example anti-doping rules are structured in equestrianism (making them uniquely vulnerable to challenge) this paper argues for greater use of private law claims by sports participants as a way of progressing change in the governance of the sport