From Stephen Hufford,
Your Guide to Racquet Sports.
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As appropriate for a popular world-wide sport, the laws of badminton are well-codified by the Badminton World Federation. With study, you can learn the laws of badminton, but that doesn't exactly tell you how the Olympic badminton events are structured and conducted.

For that, you need to look at the badminton qualification system principles used for the Beijing Olympics. Those principles define how the 172 Olympic badminton competitors are chosen. For Beijing, the timeline begins on May 1, 2007 at the start of the Badminton World Federation ranking year. That year ends on May 1, 2008 with the publication of the ranking list, and final determinations of all the Olympic badminton competitors occur on July 23, 2008.

You also need to look at the statement of badminton's requirement for the Olympic games. That gives you a good sense for the approach to Olympic officiating, and the requirements for the badminton venue, among other things.

The key thing to know is that Olympic badminton games are played to 21 points, matches are won by winning two games, and players compete in five events: mens and womens singles, mens and womens doubles, and mixed doubles. The Badminton World Federation provides simplified rules that are a good place to begin.