What Regulators Can Learn From Sports

May 3, 2026 - 06:30

Legal scholar Mitchell Berman argues that sports offer a surprisingly useful model for understanding how rules and regulation work in the real world. In a recent analysis, Berman treats competitive athletics as a kind of legal system in miniature, complete with its own enforcement mechanisms, interpretive disputes, and evolving standards. He suggests that regulators in government and business could learn a great deal by studying how sports handle the tension between strict rules and the spirit of the game.

One key lesson involves the role of discretion. In sports, referees and umpires often have to make split-second judgment calls that cannot be fully captured by any written rule. Berman points out that this is not a flaw but a feature. Rigid, literal enforcement can destroy the integrity of a contest just as easily as lax enforcement can. Regulators face the same problem when they try to write laws that anticipate every possible scenario. The result is often a thicket of overly complex rules that still fail to prevent bad behavior.

Another insight comes from how sports handle ambiguity. A rule might say a player cannot "interfere" with an opponent, but what counts as interference can change from game to game or even from one league to another. Berman notes that sports rely on a shared understanding among players, officials, and fans about what is fair. This unwritten code often matters more than the text of the rulebook. Regulators, he suggests, would benefit from cultivating a similar sense of shared purpose and community norms rather than just piling on more paperwork.

Finally, Berman highlights the importance of finality in sports. A bad call can cost a team a championship, but the game moves on. There is no endless appeals process. This forces everyone to accept that no system of rules is perfect. For regulators, this is a hard but necessary lesson. The goal is not to eliminate every mistake but to create a system that is generally fair, predictable, and trusted.