The Italian Anti-Doping Legal System

In Italy, both state and sports legal system counter the spread of doping. The fight against doping by the state began very early. In 1971, there was the first state law, which introduced the crime of doping into the legal system: thus at least simultaneously with the first sports rules on doping. Despite the special attention paid by Italian legal order to the fight against doping, ended with the adoption of the Law 376/2000, there are few judgments on the matter. Such lack of judgments, maybe, depends by the difficult to prosecute sports offences, due to the distinctive feature of sport as an unnecessary and volunteer activity as well as by the increasingly widespread affirmation of the principle of self-determination in health choices. The panorama offered by the Italian sports legal system is different. In fact, it followed the evolution of international sports legislation, especially that issued by WADA, giving rise to several cases.