Hayden Opie is the Director of Studies of the Melbourne Sports Law Program. He pursues research and teaching interests in all areas of sports law and is recognised internationally for his work in the field. In recent years he has been researching and writing on anti-discrimination law in sport, labour market regulation, sports betting and medico-legal issues such as injury liability and anti-doping rules.
The Sports Law Program features 11 graduate level subjects which may be taken for continuing education or towards a Graduate Diploma in Sports Law or one of a number of degrees at the Masters level. Hayden has been largely responsible for the development of most of the subjects and teaches in six of them. He has taught sports law subjects at The University of Sydney, The University of Adelaide and Marquette University, USA. Hayden also supervises Research Higher Degree students.
A graduate of this law school, he undertook higher study in sports law at The University of Toronto in the mid-1980s. Since then he has established and developed the Melbourne Sports Law Program, initiated the founding of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association Inc, and served as the Association's President for its first eight years. In 2000, he was made the Association's first Life Member.
In 1995, he conducted an independent inquiry on behalf of the Federal Minister for Sport into the Australian Institute of Sport's women's artistic gymnastics program. The inquiry's report was tabled in the Australian Parliament in November 1995. Also, he has conducted investigations and hearings into a variety of disputes for Australian sport governing bodies.
In recent years, he has spoken on sports law issues at conferences in Asia, Europe and the United States of America including keynote addresses at SportAccord (the annual conference of the General Association of International Sports Federations) in Beijing, China in April 2007, Athens, Greece in June 2008 and London, United Kingdom in April 2011.
His publications on sports law cover a wide range of topics and have appeared in Australian, European, New Zealand, South American and United States journals and books.
In 2009, Hayden received the ANZSLA Contribution to Sport Award and in July 2010 he was appointed by the Federal Minister of Sport as the legal member of the Anti-Doping Rule Violation Panel estabilished under the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Act 2006 (Cth).
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