The Sports Law Institute at Vermont Law School presents a panel discussion on the “Emerging Legal Issues in Ski, Snowboarding and Resort Law.” The is open to the public and 1.25 Vermont CLE credit hours will be available. Brian Porto, Jaimesen Heins, Andrew Maass, and Parker Riehle are the panelists.
Topics for discussion include:
• tort implications of participating in ski and snowboarding;
• role of assumption of risk in personal injury litigation involving ski and snowboarding;
• new state laws that promote safety, such as requiring skiers and snowboarders under 18 to wear helmets;
• the structuring of licensing and related ski and snowboarding contracts;
• impact of international law on multi-national ski, snowboarding and resort transactions;
• impact of controversial new regulations promulgated by the International Ski Federation;
• ways the law can improve underprivileged persons’ access to ski and snowboarding; and
• how changes to the law might address the expected impact of climate change on the ski, snowboarding and resort industries.
Book-length literature on these topics are limited, however, for those of you who might want to read up on some of these topics, please should consider the following items:
Climate Change in the European Alps: Adapting Winter Tourism and Natural Hazards Management. OECD, 2007.
The Executive Summary states that: “This report provides an assessment of the impacts of, and adaptation to, climate change in the areas of winter tourism and natural hazards management for the European Alps.1 The implications of this assessment however extend beyond the European Alps. Insights into the costs of adaptation, the roles of the private sector and government agencies, and broader lessons on the synergies and trade-offs between climate change adaptation and other sectoral and development priorities are also likely to be relevant for other mountain systems which face similar climatic and contextual challenges, for example in North America, Australia and New Zealand.”
Bruce, Ian. “On Thin Ice: Winter Sports and Climate Change.” David Suzuki Foundation, Canada: 2009.
McGill, Daniel D.D. “The Impact of Climate Change on Ski Resorts Operations and Development. ” presents a broad overview of the unique issues that accompany climate change.”
Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning for a Master of Science in real estate development.” MIT, 2007.
Prendergast, Kate M. “The Evolution of Ski resort Sustainability: From on the Mountain Efficiency to Environmental Activism.” A senior thesis Allegheny College, Meadville, PA, 2011. Contains a six page bibliography.
Blogs
Google has a search engine that searches only blogs. The search: “skiing climate change,” provides hundreds of hits.
http://www.skisafety-blog.com/ski_law/ The latest on ski safety, ski accidents & ski litigation news- from the heart of U.S. ski country
A number of blogs deal with the topic of climate change and its effect on the ski industry: http://mountainareasandclimatechange.blogspot.com/ and http://summitcountyvoice.com/
Skiers’ rights, skiers’ responsibilities, ski cases and ski accidents
CARL YIRKA
Julien & Virginia Cornell Library 