Life In 19x19

The EGF is trying to form the appeals commission that it decided must be elected as part of its constitution in the year 2000. (Yes it was a while ago). If anyone is interested in joining it let them now. Personally I am wondering why the EGF should bother having one. The EGF is pretty vapid as a legal authority if you ask me.


10 Appeals

An Appeals' Commission will be installed by the AGM. The commission shall have the following functions:

a. to hear and decide on appeals filed by an affected party against decisions of the EGF, including its organs and disciplinary instances, unless such appeal is expressly excluded in these bylaws or in the regulations of the EGF. Appeal to a decision of General Meeting is not possible, since General Meeting is the highest authority of the EGF;

b. to hear and decide on appeals concerning go matters:
* filed by players or legal persons, who have completed the internal juridical procedure within the go organization in Europe, to which they are affiliated (provided there was a internal procedure which could be followed) or
* filed by players or legal persons against decisions of the go organization in Europe to which they are affiliated, when this go organization has no internal juridical procedure;

c. to act as an arbitration panel for disputes within the world of Go in Europe, if the EGF or the EGF's disciplinary instances are not directly involved in such a dispute;

d. to prepare the Regulations and possible sanctions governing Appeals for approval by the AGM.
As long as no Regulations governing Appeals are decided upon by the AGM, the commission will work in the way the commission decides, considering reasonableness and due process.

And how to contact them?

I guess you contact the Executive ... not sure what the official email is

If the commission shall solve troubles like FIGG-AGI - fine. But where are the commission's limits? Lots of words in the constitution do not make that particularly clear. I have tried to find out but not got answers yet. In particular, it is not easily obvious when the Rules Commission decides and when the Appeals Commission decides. My guess is as below.


If I understand the constitution correctly, then "unless such appeal is expressly excluded in these bylaws or in the regulations of the EGF" applies to the General Tournament Rules,

http://www.eurogofed.org/egf/tourrules.htm

which are regulations of the EGF, §7.5, which specifies that the Rules Commission makes the "final judgement" on disputes after an appeal against a tournament's appeals committee was made. This interpretation is also supported by "if the EGF or the EGF's disciplinary instances are not directly involved in such a dispute".

So far the Rules Commission may also make tournament / rules judgements as replacement final court of a national association's dispute, if the NA so wishes. This is specified in Functions of the EGF Rules Commission

http://www.eurogofed.org/egf/rulescom.htm

in "Provide a means whereby countries can obtain advice on settling internal disputes related to Go rules or tournaments." So in that case, the Rules Commission would still be called and the Appeals Commission would be excluded.

For all(?) other purposes, the Appeals Commission might judge.

BTW, "in Europe" in Constitution §10 is now bad wording since the EGF expands beyond Europe. "in EGF member countries" would be better.

Unfortunately, "Appeals Commission" is too easily confused with "appeals committee [of a tournament]".