National law, domestic governance and global policy: a case study of anti-doping policy in Slovenia

Abstract

This article examines the impact of global anti-doping initiatives on national sport policies and the role of wider national political and legal frameworks in facilitating compliance with them. The role of these frameworks in respect of ‘top-down' sports policy scenarios - where sovereign states, sports organizations and individual actors respond to the policy obligations placed upon them by virtue of their acceding to international initiatives such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code or the UNESCO Anti-Doping Convention - is considered by reference to the ongoing development of anti-doping policy within the Republic of Slovenia. This article identifies various patterns of policy change which have occurred in the national context as a consequence of global policy initiatives and thus examines the relationship between a sovereign state's particular response to global policies, the ostensibly binding nature of those policies and the role of national law in the relationship between them.