A book examining the legality of athlete drug testing will be published by Murdoch Law lecturer Tony Buti in time for Sydney’s brush with Olympic fever this year.

Buti, who co-authored the book with Sam Fridman of the Sydney University Law School, said that the book discussed the history of drug testing in sport and tackled many of the associated legal and policy issues embroiled in sports drug testing.

“Sport and law were historically meant to be kept separate but as sport becomes big business, the importance of sports law is increasing,” he said.

Buti explained that there were a number of cloudy legal issues associated with athlete drug testing, such as proving the integrity of the sample, the intent of the athlete and the severity of the penalty.

Pitched at sports administrators, athletes and practicing lawyers, this book examines the fundamental question about sports drug test – what is the purpose of it?

“Do we test for drugs just to prevent cheating or are there other issues involved such as protecting the health of the athletes or preserving the pure image of a sport?” Buti said.

“And is it right for sports administrators to be concerned about controlling athletes’ health, or should they just focus on the integrity of the sport?”

Discussions about drugs in sport frequently use the argument that drugged athletes have an unfair advantage over their drug-free competitors.

However discussing performance enhancing drug in this context brings into question the fairness of Western athletes using the advantages of sports science over poorer countries, and the possibilities of genetically engineering superior athletes in the future.

“If we eliminate drugs from sport, then society has to understand and accept that athletic performance may deteriorate,” he said.

Buti explained that the strict liability placed on athletes pertaining to drug testing was contrary to normal civil liberties, and that they were denied the natural justice of a proper hearing and the defence argument of honest and reasonable mistake.

“There are too many drugs on the banned list – only substances that result in significantly improved performance should be tested for and banned,” Buti said.

The current punishment for testing positive to a banned substance prevents the athlete from competing for two years. This has been reduced from four years because of concern by sport administrators to unreasonable restraint of trade arguments from athletes earning vast sums of money.

“It is hard to set the severity of the penalty across the board because there are so many contradictory stances in different sports, particularly with social drugs,” he said.

Buti’s next project will involve racial vilification in sport, intertwining his interests in the human rights and civil liberties associated with sport and his extensive work on the stolen generations.