Jon Heshka

My trajectory to academia has been a bit unorthodox. I have worked as a climbing guide, trained and coordinated search and rescue, managed risk and sales in the United States with a European-based manufacturer of outdoor equipment, advised recreation programmes on their exposure to legal risk, and earned 5 degrees including a Master of Education and Master of Laws specializing in adventure education and sports law respectively.

My background includes stints playing semi-pro volleyball in Brazil, researching wolves in the Canadian Rockies, climbing and leading expeditions from Alaska to Argentina, Tajikistan to the Tetons, and many points in between.  I also trained and coordinated search and rescue for 7 years for the Province of British Columbia with the Ministry of Attorney General / Justice Institute of BC and have performed mountain rescues above 15,000 feet on three continents.

I have guided with Outward Bound, instructed fall protection and rescue to a myriad of clients including Golden Gate Bridge, worked in senior management with Petzl America, and continue to consult on risk reduction strategies to the public and private sectors.

 I have been married to Wendy for 15 years and together we have 2 wonderful kids – Tegan (10) and Brock (8) – whom I continue to emotionally scar as their football coach!

Co-Director of the Centre for International Sport Law (CISL)

Visiting Lecturer - LLM International Sports Law Programme at Staffordshire University Law School

Associate Professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC Canada

BSc (Zoology), BA (Politics), BEd, MEd, LLM

Sports Lawyers Association

Sport & Recreation Law Association

Negligence in contact sports

Liability of adventure

Inherent risk in adventure

Interface of technology with sport

Wilderness / outdoor risk management

Ambush marketing

My research interests are primarily in the fields of sports negligence, the liability of adventure, technological doping, and ambush marketing.

I recently co-authored a university textbook entitled Managing Risk: Systems Planning for Outdoor Adventure Programs which represents the next generation of thinking to risk and adventure.  I also co-wrote a chapter entitled ‘The Legal Context for Outdoor Recreation’ in Risk management in the outdoors: A whole of organisation approach for education, sport and recreation which is scheduled to be published in 2011 by Cambridge University Press.

Kris Lines and I collaborate on a number of research projects including – most recently – our influential work on the regulation of technology in sport.

For a full list of publications, click here (PDF, file size: 33.49KB)

 Recent Publications:

• Lines, K. & Heshka, J. (2011, January). Things that go bump in the night: An analysis of Barnes v. The Scout Association [2011] 155(2).  Solicitors Journal 8-9.

• Jackson, J. & Heshka, J. (2010). Managing Risk – Systems Planning for Outdoor Adventure Programs.  Ottawa, ON: DBI.

• Lines, K & Heshka, J. (2010).  Advertising: Ambush marketing: FIFA’s rights protection programme.  World Sports Law Report, 8 (8), 4-6.

• Heshka J. & Lines, K. (2010). Assessing the Competency of Sport to Regulate Technology.  International Journal of Sport and Society, 1 (3), 1-14.

 
Recent Conference Presentations:

• ‘Technological Doping and Sport Integrity’ British Association for Sport and Law Conference (Leicester, UK), 2010.

• ‘Assessing the Competency of Sport to Regulate Technology’ with Kris Lines, International Sport and Society Conference (Vancouver, BC), 2010.

• ‘Evolving Risk Management Practices in Canada’ Wilderness Risk Management Conference (Jackson Hole, WY), 2008.

• ‘How Tort Law Operates in Recreation, Sports and Field Trip Environments’ with William P. Hoye (Associate Vice-President and Deputy General Counsel - University of Notre Dame), 28th Annual National Conference on Law and Higher Education (Clearwater Beach, FL), 2007.
  

I am a Visiting Lecturer in the LLM International Sports Law programme at Staffordshire Law School.

I am also an Associate Professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC  Canada.