ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the development of sports negligence jurisprudence in the UK. In so doing, it provides the foundations and framework used by courts to define the duty owed by defendants involved in the particular circumstances of sporting activity. Whilst seeking to emphasise established legal principles of more general application, the analysis remains mindful of the relevance of such principles when defining a sports coach’s duty of care. The chapter considers seven of the most relevant Court of Appeal decisions in this area. These cases encompass claims of a breach of duty by various defendants, from a range of sports and performance levels, including both amateur and professional sport. The chapter examines in detail the duty of care owed by competitors to spectators and the duty owed by sports participants to co-participants. This analysis proves instructive in identifying the fashioning of the legal test used by the judiciary when tasked with ruling on the nature and extent of the duty owed in the prevailing circumstances of sport. Following this, the chapter is brought into even sharper focus, with regard to defining a coach’s duty of care, by analysing the strong analogy of the duty of care owed by referees to players.
