SHARIAsource

New York University, School of Law

This course will provide an overview of the theoretical doctrines that give rise to Islamic finance and an introduction to its contemporary practice in various market contexts. We will begin with the religious impulse that gives rise to Islamic finance, including, different Islamic critiques of conventional finance and why Islamic finance is claimed to be a superior model. We will then turn to classical Islamic commercial law, and study the two principle classical doctrines of Islamic commercial law that seem to mandate the creation of alternative financing models, ribā (often translated, incorrectly, to “usury”) and gharar (often translated, incorrectly, as “speculation”). We will also cover the basic building blocks of Islamic commercial law, studying rules governing sales, leases, loans, pledges and other fundamental commercial law relationships as well as Islamic rules governing business organizations such as general and limited partnerships.

After completing an overview of historical doctrines, we will turn to how these doctrines were modernized to produce a “modern” Islamic commercial law, something that enabled the rise of contemporary Islamic finance. We will consider a broad range of Islamic financial contracts across various markets, including, consumer banking and finance, Islamic deposit taking banks, Islamic corporate finance (e.g., sukuk, sometimes called “Islamic bonds”) and Islamic derivatives. We will then consider the legal structure undergirding Islamic finance and use it as an example of the advantages/disadvantages of public ordering versus private ordering. The course will conclude with different critiques of Islamic finance.

This statute regulates, among other bankruptcy-related topics:

1. eligibility for declaring bankruptcy;
2. the consequences of bankruptcy;
3. administration of the assets of a person declared bankrupt;
4. creditors;
5. judicial stipulations as to bankruptcy; and
6. activity post-bankruptcy declaration.

َMain chapters include: 1- Merchant and Commercial Transaction Defined, 2- Commercial Register Books and Commercial Registration Offices, 3- Commercial Companies, 4- Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes, Checks, 5- Bearer Instruments, 6- Brokerage, 7- Commission Agency, 8- Transportation Contract, 9- Commercial Deputy and Commercial Agents, 10- guaranty, 11- Bankruptcy, 12- Criminal Bankruptcy, 13- Reorganization, 14- Trade Name, 15- Legal Entities, 16- Other Provisions.

Articles 21-93 of this Code, regarding joint stock companies, was repealed and replaced by the Joint Stock Companies Act (1969).

Chapters on nominate contracts (endowment, sales, options, barter/ mu‘āwaḍa, hire and lease, partnerships -shirka, muzāra‘a, musāqāt, muḍāraba-, reward/ju‘āla, deposit, fungible and non-fungible loan, agency, financial and personal guaranty, assignment, settlement, pledge, gift), shuf‘a, wills, inheritance, marriage and divorce, mahr, and alimony took almost all of its substance from prominent Shi’i fiqh treatises. Other chapters (classification of properties, easement, usufruct, general rules of obligations and contracts, nationality, registration of civil status, domicile, engagement, guardianship, and evidence) are mainly influenced by Swiss and French Civil Codes and Swiss Code of Obligations.