Page 22 - THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE’S ACCOUNTABILITY FOR HARMFUL CONSEQUENCES OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES- A MULTI-METHOD INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ANALYSIS Ryan Gautier

Chapter One – Introduction
Pound posed similar questions in a short paper in 2011, to which my research questions owe an intellectual debt.51
To test the hypothesis that the IOC’s lack of accountability is undermining its legitimacy, this thesis poses the following research questions:
1. Why should the IOC be the organisation that is accountable for the worst outcomes of the Olympic Games? Should other actors be held accountable?
2. To what extent is the IOC accountable? Why should the IOC choose to be more accountable than it currently is?
3. How might amending the process used to select the hosts of the Olympic Games improve accountability for the worst outcomes of the Games?
4. Are other accountability mechanisms within the broader world of international sport sufficient to improve the IOC accountability? If not, are alternative accountability mechanisms available to improve the IOC’s accountability?
These questions will be supported by sub-questions in each chapter.
3. Theoretical Framework of the Thesis—Understanding Global Governance
To answer the research questions above, this thesis finds its home in the research of global governance. A significant problem examined by international legal and international relations scholars is the lack of accountability of global governance actors. Global governance actors exercise rule-making and institutional authority (i.e., power) at the global level, often over a particular issue area, such as the IOC does with sport.52 Decisions made by global governance actors increasingly have “direct legal consequences for individuals or firms without any intervening role for national government action.”53 Some global governance actors, namely IOs, have states members, and thus may claim some degree of democratic accountability through the representative of the state keeping an eye
51 Richard W. Pound, ‘A Research Agenda for Olympic Reform’ (2011) 14 Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics 399.
52 Robert O. Keohane, ‘Global Governance and Democratic Accountability’ in David Held and Mathias Koenig- Archibugi (eds), Taming Globalization: Frontiers of Governance (Polity Press 2003) 132.
53 Benedict Kingsbury, Nico Krisch and Richard B. Stewart, ‘The Emergence of Global Administrative Law’ (2005) 68 Law and Contemporary Problems 15, 24.
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