![handle is hein.journals/jfc28 and id is 1 raw text is: Editorial
Need for more support for our UK enforcement officers and judges when
dealing with domestic and cross-jurisdictional aspects of Shari'a law[1]
Shari'a in the UK domestic legal system poses both challenges and opportunities. Some of
the legal challenges have recently been highlighted in a number of training sessions this
author was instructed to deliver in-house by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) - in
the area of Islamic financial law.
Contextualising Shari'a's interconnectedness with business and the marketplace since
the inception of Islam, the fundamentals of Islamic financial law, the controversy of plurality
of Islamic jurisprudence (Figh), the contribution of the Qur'an and Sunna to Islamic
business rules, Shari'a's constitutional relevance in the modern day were among topics
tackled. This is by no means the complete constituents of the various threads to the
discussion required on the subject matter. But it is rather a structured introduction to a
nuanced topic often hallmarked by legal incertitude. To have in-depth appraisal of a subject
matter such as Islamic financial law (imbued heavily in traditional Fiqh), both Shari'a's
micro-transactional principles and its macro-jurisprudential objectives need to be fully
expounded. This is especially the case, given that Islamic financial law is beset by
jurisprudential imprecision, lack of practice-based standardisation, unreliable literature and
misapplication.
Nevertheless, what was evident from these training sessions was the proactiveness of the
Crown Advocates and Special Prosecutors who attended as displayed in their expert and
more general interest in the subject matter. Their genuine engagement, open-mindedness
and legal perceptiveness is a credit to the CPS in its wider attempts to surmount the many
challenges wrought by domestic and cross-jurisdictional applications of Shari'a law.
Equally, a tribute to our British legal system which globally is amongst the very best in its
professionalism and dedication to justice and procedural probity.
Enforcement issues and legal facets pertaining to asset tracing when there is a Shari'a
element are further compounded by multiplicity in Fiqh rulings and muddying of the
parameters of the relationship between national (overwhelmingly secular) laws and Shari'a.
This is the case even in the majority of Islamic countries. Added to this are problems often
encountered in enforcing foreign (judicial and arbitral) decisions/awards - or lack of legal
assistance when conducting extra-territorial investigations at pre-trial contexts. Also, by
defendants'/disputants' attempts to exploit Shari'a to obfuscate legal boundaries to hide,
mix or transfer assets or title to such assets.
The fact that there are no formal guidelines adopted in the UK (even at a basic advisory
level) to provide lucidity on Shari'a law in the UK criminal justice system does contribute to
the above dissatisfactory state of affairs. This is especially as there is lack of authoritative
treatment of Shari'a, coupled with lack of clarity vis-d-vis the identification of its technical
rules (intermeshed with its legal maxims, known as Al-Qawa&id Al-Fightyah) and its
applicability domestically under challenges posed, for example, by the 1980 Rome
Convention.
The need for such formal guidelines is even more imperative given that the principles of
Shari'a (which stand firm in supporting weaker parties to a transaction, require full
disclosure and contractual good-faith) appear to be pushed aside for the sake of commercial
profiteering. In this respect, there is no industry which typifies the gulf between its
Journal of Financial Crime
Vol.28 No. 1,2021
pp. 1-2
©Emerald Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.11OSIJFC01-2021-255
Editorial](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jfc28&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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