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Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making

Brianna Walsh, Yvonne McDermott Rees, Andrew Bloodworth Orcid Logo

The International Sports Law Journal, Pages: 1 - end

Swansea University Authors: Brianna Walsh, Yvonne McDermott Rees, Andrew Bloodworth Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s40318-026-00340-4

Abstract

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which governs anti-doping globally, is an international organisation that may be described as a hybrid public-private entity. Given that public entities are bound to act in the public interest, this article explores the extent to which WADA is bound to, or ought...

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Published in: The International Sports Law Journal
ISSN: 1567-7559 2213-5154
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71644
first_indexed 2026-03-19T16:01:45Z
last_indexed 2026-04-15T04:47:35Z
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spelling 2026-04-14T16:16:07.4535328 v2 71644 2026-03-19 Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making ff2d87c271a71a878f09b6dbfa2220a3 Brianna Walsh Brianna Walsh true false e6e1ae537327fc3f38d2af4a9d9834d8 Yvonne McDermott Rees Yvonne McDermott Rees true false 3d3183652dd8a45724e24c671b295889 0000-0002-4601-442X Andrew Bloodworth Andrew Bloodworth true false 2026-03-19 EAAS The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which governs anti-doping globally, is an international organisation that may be described as a hybrid public-private entity. Given that public entities are bound to act in the public interest, this article explores the extent to which WADA is bound to, or ought to, incorporate a public interest test in the exercise of its discretionary decision-making. Models assessing the nature of WADA and anti-doping often focus on its structure rather than its practical activities. Because WADA’s structure is unusual, the anti-doping literature has primarily used Benedict Kinsgbury’s conceptualization of “publicness” to analyse the grey area between private and public that WADA occupies. Literature on the publicness of anti-doping predates several International Standards and does not reflect WADA’s evolving role in anti-doping fields such as education. In this paper, using a novel holistic understanding of publicness drawing from the works of Kinsgbury, Armin von Bogdandy et al. and Letitia Lo Giacco, we argue that WADA is sufficiently public in nature to require a public interest consideration. By embedding a public interest test, as is required of prosecutors in criminal justice systems worldwide, WADA decision-makers would be held to a common standard in articulating the rationale for their actions. This, in turn, would lead to greater consistency in decision-making and the embedding of procedural justice principles in anti-doping processes. We identify WADA’s current roles in anti-doping as well as situations of discretionary decision-making in the World Anti-Doping Code, and illustrate how a public interest test would impact decision-making using case studies. Journal Article The International Sports Law Journal 0 1 end Springer Science and Business Media LLC 1567-7559 2213-5154 Publicness; Anti-doping; Discretion; Public interest; Discretionary decision-making 2 4 2026 2026-04-02 10.1007/s40318-026-00340-4 COLLEGE NANME Engineering and Applied Sciences School COLLEGE CODE EAAS Swansea University Other This project DAiSI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe by the granting Authority REA (the European Research Executive Agency) under Grant Agreement No. 101120342; from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant number: EP/Y031687/1). Funded by the UK Research and Innovation. 2026-04-14T16:16:07.4535328 2026-03-19T15:02:24.0129957 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Sport and Exercise Sciences Brianna Walsh 1 Yvonne McDermott Rees 2 Andrew Bloodworth 0000-0002-4601-442X 3 71644__36509__d3605267645b4e2f9860b1e6ba404964.pdf 71644.VoR.pdf 2026-04-14T16:13:43.9527262 Output 1214915 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making
spellingShingle Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making
Brianna Walsh
Yvonne McDermott Rees
Andrew Bloodworth
title_short Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making
title_full Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making
title_fullStr Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making
title_full_unstemmed Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making
title_sort Public enough: the need to incorporate a public interest consideration in anti-doping decision-making
author_id_str_mv ff2d87c271a71a878f09b6dbfa2220a3
e6e1ae537327fc3f38d2af4a9d9834d8
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author_id_fullname_str_mv ff2d87c271a71a878f09b6dbfa2220a3_***_Brianna Walsh
e6e1ae537327fc3f38d2af4a9d9834d8_***_Yvonne McDermott Rees
3d3183652dd8a45724e24c671b295889_***_Andrew Bloodworth
author Brianna Walsh
Yvonne McDermott Rees
Andrew Bloodworth
author2 Brianna Walsh
Yvonne McDermott Rees
Andrew Bloodworth
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institution Swansea University
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2213-5154
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publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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description The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which governs anti-doping globally, is an international organisation that may be described as a hybrid public-private entity. Given that public entities are bound to act in the public interest, this article explores the extent to which WADA is bound to, or ought to, incorporate a public interest test in the exercise of its discretionary decision-making. Models assessing the nature of WADA and anti-doping often focus on its structure rather than its practical activities. Because WADA’s structure is unusual, the anti-doping literature has primarily used Benedict Kinsgbury’s conceptualization of “publicness” to analyse the grey area between private and public that WADA occupies. Literature on the publicness of anti-doping predates several International Standards and does not reflect WADA’s evolving role in anti-doping fields such as education. In this paper, using a novel holistic understanding of publicness drawing from the works of Kinsgbury, Armin von Bogdandy et al. and Letitia Lo Giacco, we argue that WADA is sufficiently public in nature to require a public interest consideration. By embedding a public interest test, as is required of prosecutors in criminal justice systems worldwide, WADA decision-makers would be held to a common standard in articulating the rationale for their actions. This, in turn, would lead to greater consistency in decision-making and the embedding of procedural justice principles in anti-doping processes. We identify WADA’s current roles in anti-doping as well as situations of discretionary decision-making in the World Anti-Doping Code, and illustrate how a public interest test would impact decision-making using case studies.
published_date 2026-04-02T06:10:38Z
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