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McKeown v British Horseracing Authority
Comment
This lengthy judgment illustrates the supervisory nature of the court’s jurisdiction to review the findings of sports disciplinary tribunals. Although the court can examine the evidence before the tribunal, and will not show “unthinkingly servile obeisance” to its decision, the court will be slow to interfere with findings of fact by a specialist tribunal. It is not necessary for a tribunal to hear expert evidence on issues where, as here, the tribunal has knowledge and experience which make it well placed to assess the evidence. Conversely, Stadlen J, a non-expert on racing matters, could not, on the basis of simply viewing the video evidence, conclude that the expert tribunals’ findings of non-trying were perverse. The claimant was himself an expert but adduced no independent expert evidence at any stage.