WADA, the Promises of Law and the Landscapes of Antidoping Regulation

Abstract

The World Anti‐Doping Agency (WADA) spearheads the international campaign against doping in sport, working within and across nongovernmental and legal spheres. This article examines WADA's organizational structure as a hybrid entity that operates between formal law and informal regulation. It analyzes the events that led to WADA's establishment, the rhetoric in which policy makers have lobbied for more legalistic measures, and the unforeseen side effects of pursuing these aims. The rhetoric deployed characterizes events in terms of a contextually specific framing of time, space, and social orientation (kairos) designed to reach and shape a particular audience. In this case, images of imminent danger pervade an antidoping rhetoric that envisions criminal law as a necessary antidote. Ironically, the success of WADA's rhetorical reframing could well undermine its stated goals, demonstrating the double bind created for hybrid NGOs that operate between formal and informal sectors in global arenas.

Reforming Global Sport: Hybridity and the Challenges of Pursuing Transparency

“…Transparency International () qualifies the goals of transparency, arguing that it is necessary for counteracting the multiple forms of corruption that threaten to tarnish sporting brands and the “positive influence sport has in spreading the values of good sportsmanship and integrity, especially for young people.” This line of argument presumes there is an inherent virtue of sport, something other campaigns aimed at preserving the integrity of sport—perhaps mostly notably the movement against doping in sport—have championed in the name of justifying greater regulation (Henne ).…”

“…Governed by the World Anti‐Doping Code and legally backed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) International Convention against Doping in Sport, the regime develops requirements and procedures to ensure that government signatories pass legislation that supports WADA's mission. The speedy ratification of the UNESCO Convention against Doping in Sport offers a clear instance in which the IOC influenced the legalization of a largely private regulatory regime (Henne ). Only forty‐one countries had ratified the convention when it came into force in 2007.…”

“…Hybrid arrangements have codified the intrusive tactics to which athletes across national jurisdictions and sports are subject. Many of them supersede indoctrinated legal commitments to privacy, bodily integrity, and procedural justice (Henne ). In addition, corporate partners, such as technology firms and pharmaceutical companies, including F. Hoffman LaRoche, Ltd. and GlaxoSmithKline, facilitate the expansion of testing and surveillance though research and development.…”

“…Although corruption in sport is attracting more scholarly attention (Maennig ), there remains little empirical work that reflects critically on corporate governance in sport and its implications (Levermore 2013). Following Roger Levermore (2013, 53), corporate governance is understood here as the “Western governance framework” applied to organizations and industries in order to “set a balance between economic and social goals” with “a level of accountability” that operates “within acceptable legal obligations.” Although this article is a conceptual piece, it relies on insight gleaned through eight years of ethnographic and archival research, which I have discussed in more depth elsewhere (Henne , ) . Like other qualitative studies of sport governance, my research scrutinizes the “often naturalized, idealized, and taken‐for‐granted allegiances between sport, business, and politics and their consequences” (Numerato and Bagloni , 608).…”

Suspect Subjects: Affects of Bodily Regulation

“…The anti-doping movement is a global regulatory regime spearheaded by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), governed by the World Anti-Doping Code and backed by the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport, which legally mandates governmental signatories to pass legislation that supports this sport-specific war on drugs. By leading this global 'hybrid' regulatory regime, WADA relies upon both legal and nongovernmental partnerships to bind athletes to regulation (Henne 2010). Athletes and support staff are, therefore, not only compelled by international and national laws in many jurisdictions but also contractually bound to comply with regulation.…”