[blml] Appeals Committees at ACBL NABCs

[Eric Landau]

At 06:52 PM 7/4/06, Sven wrote:

> > Adam wrote:
> >
> > > "Item 062-90: NABC Appeals
> > > ACBL Tournament Directors shall hear and rule upon all appeals filed
> > > at North American Bridge Championships. All NABC+ appeals shall be
> > > heard by Tournament Director Panels in a manner similar to regional
> > > appeal hearings (Ref: 983-02, 992-02). All conduct and Ethics matters
> > > shall be referred to and heard by the NABC Tournament Committee or to
> > > their assignees."
>
>An AC can not overrule the Director on a matter of Law or regulation
>(L94B3); the duty of an AC is to try the Director's judgments. 
>Consequently
>it is more important for members of the AC to be competent bridge players
>than to be competent "bridge lawyers".

I think this is the key point.  L93 *already* places the responsibility 
for dealing with appeals on points of "Law or regulations" on the CTD, 
whose judgment may not be overruled by the AC.  AC members are 
responsible for ruling on points of fact or of "bridge judgment".  TDs 
are no better than others at determining facts based on presented 
evidence, and may be unable to do so without, as others have pointed 
out, the (presumably unjustified) appearance of bias, as they would be 
passing on the judgment of their immediate colleagues.  On fine points 
of bridge judgment, while we do have some TDs who are also very good 
players in their own right, they don't stack up to the best players at 
NABCs.  What happens when an appeal involves adjudicating a Meckwell 
auction?  Will the ACBL be able to find five TDs who understand their 
system?  (OK, it may not be so easy to find five disinterested players 
who understand the Meckwell system, but it should be possible.)

The bottom line seems to be, how can having the responsibility for 
adjudicating high-level appeals involve representatives of two 
different constituencies not be superior to involving just one?


Eric Landau                     ehaa at starpower.net
1107 Dale Drive                 (301) 608-0347
Silver Spring MD 20910-1607