Legal Infrastructure for Islamic Finance in Qatar

This study aimed at contributing to the development of legal infrastructure for Islamic finance in Qatar and as such evaluated the existing legal and regulatory framework. The evaluation criteria are an adaptation of conventional finance indicators for Islamic finance, and they are: Sharia governance, the cost of information, transaction, and enforcement, financial market development, financial stability, and investor and consumer protection. The major areas of private law evaluated were contract, finance, company, insolvency. In addition to dispute resolution, the major areas of pubic law evaluated are financial regulator law, securities exchange regulator law. Qatar is found to be a jurisdiction of high legal and regulatory quality for the practice of Islamic finance. The study is expected to be useful in strengthening the legal and regulatory framework for Islamic finance and placing Qatar in competitive edge locally, regionally and globally.