Penn State
Lewis Katz Building, University Park, PA
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Stephen F. Ross - On leave

Stephen Ross

Lewis H. Vovakis Distinguished Faculty Scholar
Professor of Law
Executive Director, Penn State Center for the Study of Sports in Society

Curriculum Vitae

Phone: 
(814) 865-8995
Education: 

J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California (Berkeley)
A.B., University of California (Berkeley)

Professor Ross teaches and writes in the disparate areas of Sports Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, and Statutory Interpretation. He clerked for Hon. Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her first year on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit, served as minority counsel for the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. Senate, and worked as an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. He has provided expert testimony and advice on sports antitrust issues to governmental entities and sports leagues and players associations around the world, and has consulted on sports league design for professional sports organizations in rugby, ice hockey, cricket, and motorcycle racing. Professor Ross has also served as a senior fellow of the American Antitrust Institute and as pro bono counsel to the AAI and consumer groups including the Consumer Federation of America on antitrust and sports litigation. He has co-authored casebooks in Sports Law and Comparative Constitutional Law and has served as a visiting professor at a number of Canadian, English and Australian universities. Since 2016, Ross has served as executive director of the University-wide Center for the Study of Sports in Society.

Law Review, Economic Journal Articles, and Academic Book Chapters

Derecho Global de Desportes (forthcoming 2022) (with Sergio Gonzalez Garcia)

Advanced Introduction to Global Sports Law (2021)

Is It Ever Too Soon to Send Off a Player? A Philosophical Investigation on the Role Discretion Should Play in Considering Commercial Interests in Sport Refereeing?, in The Jurisprudence of Sport (Miroslav Imbrisevic ed., forthcoming 2022)

Solving the Problem of Social Cost through Legislative Pressure: A Case Study of the Coase Theorem as Applied to the College Basketball Shoe Scandal, 30 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 9 (2019) (with Miles J. Gueno)

The Political Process and Substantive Due Process, 20 U. Penn. J. Const’l L. 983 (2018) (with Jesse H. Choper)

Clear Statement Rules and the Integrity of Labor Arbitration, 10 Arbitration L. Rev. 1 (2017) (with Roy Eisenhardt)

The Single-Entity Doctrine of Antitrust as Applied to Sports Leagues in The Oxford Handbook of American Sports Law (Michael A. McCann, ed.) (Oxford University Press 2018))

Litigation as Strategy to Overcome Monopolistic Inefficiency in Sports, Managerial and Decision Econ. (2016)

A Strategic Legal Challenge to the Unforeseen Anticompetitive and Racially Discriminatory Effects of Baseball’s North American Draft, 115 Colum L. Rev. Sidebar 127 (2015) (with Michael James, Jr.)

Reform of Sports Gambling in the United States: Lessons from Down Under, 5 Ariz. St. Sports & Ent. L.J. 7 (2015) (with James Gorman III and Ryan Mentzer)

A Rapid Reaction to O’Bannon: The Need for Analytics in Applying the Sherman Act to Overly Restrictive Joint Venture Schemes,  119 Penn St. L. Rev. Penn Statim 43 (2015) (with Wayne S. DeSarbo)

Insights from Canada for American Constitutional Federalism, 16 U.Pa. J. Const’l L. 891 (2014)

A Regulatory Solution to Better Promote the Educational Values and Economic Sustainability of Intercollegiate Athletics, 92 U. Ore. L. Rev. 837 (2014) (with Matthew J. Mitten)

Judicial Review of NCAA Eligibility Decisions: Evaluation of the Restitution Rule and a Call for Arbitration (with Richard T. Karcher & S. Baker Kensinger), 40 J. Coll. & Univ. L. 101 (2014)

Using Contract Law to Tackle the Coaching Carousel (with Lindsay Berkstressser), 47 U.S.F. L. Rev. 709 (2013)

Radical Reform of Intercollegiate Athletics: Antitrust, Title IX, and Public Policy Implications, 86 Tulane L. Rev. 933 (2012) (symposium)

The Supreme Court’s Renewed Focus on Inefficiently Structured Joint Ventures, 14 U. Pa. Bus. L. Rev. 261 (2012)

The Story of Flood v. Kuhn: Dynamic Statutory Interpretation, At the Time, in Statutory Interpretation Stories (William Eskridge, Philip Frickey, and Elizabeth Garrett, eds. Foundation 2010)

Seizing the Moment: A Blueprint for Reform of World Cricket (with Ian Preston and Stefan Szymanski) in Stefan Szymanski, The Comparative Economics of Sport (Palgrave 2010) (originally web published 2001)

Statutory Interpretation as a Parasitic Endeavor, 44 U.S.D. L. Rev. 1027 (2008) (symposium)

Antitrust and Inefficient Joint Ventures: Why Sports Leagues Should Look More Like McDonald’s and Less Like the United Nations, 16 Marquette Sports L.J. 213 (2006)

The NHL Labour Dispute and the Common Law, the Competition Act, and Public Policy, 37 U.B.C. L.Rev. 343 (2004)

Some Outside Observations on Overly Restrictive Agreements and the Souths Rugby Case, 12 Australian Consumer & Comp. L. J. 83 (2004)

The Political Economy of the Efficiency Defence, 21 Canadian Competition Record 89 (2003)

Some Useful Charter Insights for American Equality Jurisprudence, in XXI Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice (2003) (symposium on 20th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms)

Location and Limits of Dynamic Statutory Interpretation in Modern Judicial Reasoning, Issues in Legal Scholarship (Boalt Hall faculty journal) (2003) (symposium on dynamic statutory interpretation), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=420500

Light, Less Filling, It’s Blue Ribbon!, 23 Cardozo L.J. 1675 (2002) (symposium on legal issues in baseball)

Open Competition in League Sports, 2002 Wisconsin L. Rev. 625 (with Stefan Szymanski)

Antitrust Options to Redress Anticompetitive Restraints and Monopolistic Practices by Sports Leagues, 52 Case Western L.J. 133 (2001) (symposium)

Promotion and Relegation, 2 World Economics 179 (2001) (with Stefan Szymanski)

Network Economic Effects and the Limits of Efficiency, 68 Antitrust L.J. 945 (2001) (symposium)

Statutory Interpretation in the Courtroom, the Classroom, and Canadian Legal Literature, 31 Ottawa L. Rev. 39 (2000)

Anti-competitive aspects of sports, 7 (Australian) Competition & Consumer L.J. 125 (1999)

Restraints on Player Competition that Facilitate Competitive Balance and Player Development and their Legality in the United States and Europe, in Competition Policy and Professional Sports (C. Jenrenaud & S. Késenne, ed.) (International Center for Sports Studies, Neuchatel, Switzerland 1999).

The Modern Parol Evidence Rule and its Implications for New Textualist Statutory Interpretation, 87 Georgetown L.J. 195 (1998) (with Daniel Tranen)

“Pro-Competitive Executive Compensation” as a Condition for Approval of Mergers that Simultaneously Exploit Consumers and Enhance Efficiency, Canadian Competition Record (spring 1998) (with Ian Ayres)

Why Highly Paid Athletes Deserve More Antitrust Protection than Unionized Factory Workers, 33 Antitrust Bulletin 641 (1997) (with Robert B. Lucke) (symposium on sports/antitrust))

The Misunderstood Alliance Between Sports Fans, Players, and the Antitrust Laws, 1997 Univ. of Illinois L. Rev. 519

Lessons from the "True North Strong and Free", 65 Antitrust L.J. 467 (1997) (symposium on Canadian competition law)

Did the Canadian Parliament Really Permit Mergers that Exploit Canadian Consumers So the World Can be More Efficient?, 65 Antitrust L.J. 641 (1997) (symposium)

The Evolving Tort of Conspiracy to Restrain Trade Under Canadian Common Law, 75 Canadian Bar Rev. 193 (1996)

Reconsidering Flood v. Kuhn, 12 U. Miami J. Ent. & Sports Law 169 (1995)

The Limited Relevance of Plain Meaning, 73 Washington U. L. Q. 1057 (1995) (symposium)

Justice Breyer and the Fault Lines of Antitrust, 40 Antitrust Bulletin 169 (1995)

Where Have You Gone, Karl Llewellyn? Should Congress Turn Its Lonely Eyes To You?, 45 Vand. L. Rev. 561 (1992)

An Antitrust Analysis of Sports League Contracts with Cable Networks, 39 Emory L.J. 463 (1990)

Reaganist Realism Comes to Detroit, 1989 University of Illinois L. Rev. 399

Monopoly Sports Leagues, 73 Minnesota L. Rev. 643 (1989)

Legislative Enforcement of Equal Protection, 72 Minnesota L. Rev. 311 (1987)

Books

Sports and the Law, 6th ed. (co-authored by Paul C. Weiler, Gary R. Roberts, Roger I. Abrams, Jodi Balsam, Will Berry, and Michael C. Harper) (Thomson/West 2019)

Comparative Constitutional Law: A Contextual Approach (with Helen Irving and Heinz Klug) (Lexis/Nexis Publishing 2014)

Handbook of International Sports Law (co-edited with James A. Nafziger) (Edward Elgar Press (2011) (including own chapter on Competition Law and Labor Markets).

Fans of the World, Unite! A (Capitalist) Manifesto for Sports Consumers (with Stefan Szymanski) (Stanford Univ. Press 2008)

Principles of the Law of Antitrust (Foundation Press 1993)