Biography
Marjolaine Viret is an associate professor at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), and a Swiss-qualified attorney with a specialisation in the regulation of sport and health. Her research orientations favour interdisciplinary approaches to explore the sport-health interface, in collaboration with researchers and stakeholders from scientific and medical fields.
Marjolaine Viret obtained a degree in law and a PhD rated summa laude from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) on the interaction between science and law in anti-doping. The monography prepared on the basis of her doctoral thesis, Evidence in Anti-Doping at the Intersection of Science & Law, published in 2015 by Springer/ASSER Press, received the Walther Hug (2017), Gottlob (2017), and the Swiss Sports Law Association (ASDS, 2016) Academic Prize. She also holds a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Health Law from the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). Subsequent research activities include a Swiss National Science Foundation post-doc at the University of Neuchâtel, where she deepened her work on anti-doping and, more generally, scientific expertise in the regulation of sport. Over the years, she taught at various academic institutions in Switzerland and abroad, including the Centre for Transnational Legal Studies in London.
Marjolaine Viret joined the University of Lausanne, first in 2021, as a lecturer for the master-level class ‘ethics in sports science’, then in 2022, for the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, to carry out postdoctoral research at the Institute of Sports Sciences (ISSUL). Adding empirical methodologies from social sciences and science & technology studies to her research, she worked on the use of science in sports policy, gender-related sports regulations, and athletes’ rights in the sport system. She participated in the teaching program of ISSUL on the regulation of doping and sociology of sport.
As of August 2024, she has been appointed associate professor at the Faculty of Law, Criminal Justice and Public Administration of the University of Lausanne. Lectures at the University of Lausanne law school include a class on sports arbitration, as well as the creation of a master-level class in sports law. She is also a member of the post-graduate CAS ‘Regulation of Global Sport’ Steering Committee. She co-teaches a class on multidisciplinary approaches to doping at ISSUL, and is involved in various institutional roles and training programs around sports or health at UNIL.
In parallel to her academic activities, she has been admitted to the Geneva bar since 2007, practicing as a lawyer in Geneva and London in commercial and sports arbitration, as well as in regulatory advice to sports organizations. She has held various positions related to sports policy, including as a member of the Union Cycliste Internationale Integrity Commission (formerly: Anti-Doping Commission). She also advised on therapeutic products and research regulation, and other areas of health and medical law.