Anti-doping in the wake of the Meldonium cases: How to balance scientific complexity and legal fairness

Name: Anti-doping in the wake of the Meldonium cases: How to balance scientific complexity and legal fairness
Start: 2016-07-06T17:00
End: 2016-07-06T19:05
Location: T.M.C. Asser Instituut

Anti-doping in the wake of the Meldonium cases: How to balance scientific complexity and legal fairness

Dr Marjolaine Viret, attorney at the Geneva bar

T.M.C. Asser Instituut and T.M.C. Asser Press cordially invite you to a Lecture and Q&A session with Dr Marjolaine Viret.

This event celebrates the publication of “Evidence in Anti-Doping at the Intersection of Science & Law”, Dr Viret’s comprehensive, practice-oriented guide to the evidentiary regime under the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) including the functioning of the Athlete Biological Passport. This unique book gives lawyers involved in anti-doping the keys to a better understanding of the science underlying the WADC regime, while providing anti-doping scientists with the first reference material to understand the legal framework in which their activities are embedded.

The Book Launch will be followed by a Lecture which seeks to draw some lessons from the recent history in anti-doping, such as the debacle surrounding the Russian doping control system and the Meldonium cases. It will show that the challenges inherent to “science-based law” may gradually command adjustments to the system. Relevant questions include: how solid must scientific foundations be to ban a substance and what is the role of performance enhancement? Can athletes be expected to bear the risk of scientific uncertainty to ease the evidentiary burden on anti-doping organisations? What is the appropriate role of the scientific experts in the process and how can we improve their interaction with regulators and adjudicating bodies? The lecture will explore how these questions at the junction of legal and scientific disciplines impact the system and whether recent events may represent a signal for change.

Speaker

Dr Marjolaine Viret is an attorney admitted to the Geneva bar (Switzerland) who specialises in sports and life sciences. Her interests focus on interdisciplinary approaches as a way of designing effective solutions in the field of anti-doping and other science-based domains. She regularly provides advice on doping matters and has also held positions within panels and committees in sports organisations, currently as a member of the UCI Anti-Doping Commission. She participates as a Swiss National Science Foundation post-doctoral researcher in the WADC Commentary Project at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), under the direction of Prof. Antonio Rigozzi, with the goal of producing the first comprehensive legal commentary of the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code.