Islamic Finance

Craig Nethercott, Partner at Latham and Watkins, has been at the cutting edge of Islamic Finance in the Middle East over the last ten years. He is currently working on the first ECA supported Islamic financing in Saudi and regularly speaks at conferences on Islamic finance issues as well as providing Islamic finance training to financial and other institutions.David Eisenberg is a partner based in the London office of the international law firm of White & Case, where he is a member of the Firm's Islamic finance practice. He studied Islamic law as an undergraduate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and as a postgraduate at Princeton University.

This work is a practical and commercial guide to the fundamental principles of Islamic finance and their application to Islamic finance transactions. Islamic finance is a rapidly expanding, global industry and this book is designed to provide a practical treatment of the subject. It includes discussion and analysis of the negotiation and structure involved in Islamic finance transactions, with relevant case studies, structure diagrams and precedent materialsupporting the commentary throughout.An introductory section describes the theoretical background and explains the principles (and their sources) of Islamic law which underpin Islamic finance practices, providing an important backdrop to the work as a whole. The work also considers the role of Shariah supervisory boards, Islamic financial institutions and the relevance of accounting approaches.The work adopts an international perspective to reflect the pan-global nature of the industry and accepted practices, with the aim to bring together different schools of thought applied in international Islamic finance transactions. It also highlights any regional differences in accepted practice by reviewing the position in the Gulf states, Asia, the UK and Europe and the USA.The second part of the book concentrates on Islamic financial law in practice and begins with a section on financial techniques. This section explains the basic requirements for Islamic finance contracts both in terms of the underlying asset types and also both the applicability and acceptability of the underlying asset. There is a full discussion of the various types of contractual models such as Mudaraba (trustee finance), Musharaka (partnership or joint venture), Murabaha (sale of goods),and Sukuk (participation securities: coupons etc). The nascent area of Takaful (insurance) is also covered as are matters specific to the important field of project and asset finance.

This work is a practical guide to the fundamental principles of Islamic law and their application to Islamic finance transactions. Focusing on structures adopted in actual transactions it addresses the entire range of financial products of current interest, including conventional structures for debt and equity financing, derivatives, and insurance.

A. IntroductionCraig Nethercott and David Eisenberg: ; 1 Dr Ibrahim Warde: Status of the global Islamic Finance Industry; 2 David Eisenberg and Dr Sherif O Hassan: Source and Principles of Islamic law in relation to Finance; 3 Andrew Henderson: Islamic Financial Institutions; 4 Nash Jaffer and Ken Eglinton: Accounting and Taxation Approaches; 5 Professor Barry Ryder: Corporate Governance for Institutions offering Islamic Financial Services; B. Islamic Law and Contracts In Practice; 6 Julian Johansen and Atif Hanif: Mudaraba and Musharaka; 7 Craig Nethercott: Mudaraba and Tawaruq; 8 Dr Waleed Al-Nuwaiser: Salaam and Arboun; 9 Matthew Sapte and Muddassir Siddiqui: Istisna and Ijara; 10 Julian Johansen and Atif Hanif: Sukuk; 11 Peter Hodgins and Caroline Jaffer: Takaful (Insurance); 12 Professor Andrew White: Dispute Resolution; 13 Appendix: Guide to primary sources and further reading