ABSTRACT
Since the Sydney 2000 Games, each edition of the Olympics has produced a raft of legislative measures that have impacted upon the event, and on the Olympic experience, in a number of ways. This creation of new law is unsurprising, being an unavoidable aspect of winning the right to host the Olympic Games, although its extent and applicability has often proved to be contentious (James and Osborn, 2011b; Scassa, 2010). It is a requirement of the Host City Contract that legislation is introduced to provide specific protection for the commercial rights associated with the Olympic Movement (Department of Culture, Media and Sport, 2011d: 2), and in the UK this legislation, the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act 2006 (LOPGA, 2006), has been the means by which the body responsible for developing the necessary sporting, transport and security infrastructure, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), was created and its powers defined. Despite the necessity of such legislative provisions, and their often controversial nature, these Olympic laws remain a field of Olympic studies that, with some notable exceptions, has rarely been subjected to academic analysis (James and Osborn, 2010, 2011b; Maestre, 2010). In this chapter, the Acts of the UK Parliament that deal specifically with Olympic issues will be examined. In conducting this analysis, the focus will be on the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Advertising and Trading) (England) Regulations 2011 (the Regulations), their impact on businesses in the vicinity of London 2012’s Olympic venues and upon the public in general, and the consistency of these laws with the fundamental principles of Olympism, and, more broadly, the Olympic values (see, for example, Tavares, 2006). The analysis will demonstrate that the UK’s Olympic laws go beyond what is necessary for the protection of the Olympic brand and the smooth running of the Games and will have a disproportionate and negative impact on anyone who is not considered to be a member of the Olympic family.
