Delineating Jurisdictional Boundaries of Lex Sportiva: A Comparative Study of Indonesia and Italy

Abstract

Football raises serious legal problems when incidents of assault on the pitch intersect with two distinct normative systems simultaneously: lex sportiva as the autonomous legal order of international sports organisations, and national criminal law. In Indonesia, Law No. 11 of 2022 on Sports and Law No. 1 of 2023 on the New Criminal Code fail to explicitly regulate the jurisdictional boundary between the two, creating a normative vacuum that undermines legal certainty and victim protection. This research aims to analyse the applicability of lex sportiva in assault incidents on the football pitch under the legal systems of Indonesia and Italy, and to examine how the legitimacy of lex sportiva autonomy can be realised in Indonesia. This normative legal research employs a statutory approach, a comparative approach, and a conceptual approach, with functional comparative analysis as the primary analytical technique. The results demonstrate that the applicability of lex sportiva in Indonesia is de facto unlimited due to the normative vacuum, while Italy through D.L. 220/2003 and the jurisprudence of the Corte di Cassazione has constructed explicit and systematic jurisdictional boundaries through an autonomy-limiting clause and an exhaustive definition of the federation's exclusive domain. This study concludes that lex sportiva autonomy in Indonesia currently possesses only weak formal legitimacy; full legitimacy requires four cumulative conditions: explicit normative recognition with a limiting clause, a disciplinary mechanism meeting due process standards, guaranteed victim access to state courts, and institutional coordination between the federation and law enforcement. This study recommends that the Parliament and Government amend Law No. 11 of 2022 by incorporating provisions that adapt the limiting principles of Art. 1(2) and Art. 2 of Italy's D.L. 220/2003.