Islamic Finance. Law and Practice. Edited by C R Nethercott et al.

Abstract

Islamic Finance, which represents a wide range of services, parallel to conventional banking but in compliance with various precepts of Islamic law and theology (of which the prohibition to charge interest is perhaps the most visible aspect), is no longer considered to be an exotic and alien set of legal and financial tools in the West. Former Chancellor A Darling’s intention to close a substantial tax loophole available to complex Shariah compliant commercial mortgages in the UK (which had been used primarily by non-Islamic institutions), the Archbishop of Canterbury’s proposal for the accommodation of forms of Islamic law in the West, and the most recent statement by the Holy See, that Islamic Finance may be a blueprint for the development of new forms of Western corporate responsibility, only demonstrates that Islamic Finance has been here for quite sometime and is here to stay. Islamic Finance, like all things Islamic, is...