Morocco Experience in Islamic Finance between the Failure of the Past and the Promising Future
Opening of Islamic banks have been increasing considerably in recent years in many countries. Morocco is among these countries and will get the agreements to open in early 2016. This following work is done in the preparation phase of the launch and its importance lies in the fact that it comes after a first failure experienced in 2007 and that Morocco is among the last Muslim countries that will integrate this type of finance into their financial system. This article will focus on the first introduction by highlighting the various obstacles that were the reason for its failure, and will underline what the new banking law has done to overcome the problems encountered before. In the end, we will address two major issues, why the system failed in 2007 and why it is more likely to succeed in 2016.
Financement bancaire islamique : une solution éthique à la crise financière
Les banques islamiques ont montre leur resistance face a la crise des Subprimes qui a touche la finance conventionnelle. Notre article s’interroge sur les facteurs explicatifs de la vulnerabilite du systeme financier conventionnel et ceux relatifs a la resistance des banques islamiques. D’une part, le referant ethico-religieux de ces banques semble contribuer a leur solidite financiere a travers l’interdiction du taux d’interet, de la speculation, de la titrisation des dettes et la prise de risque excessive dans les operations de couverture. D’autre part, le paradigme de partage des profits et des pertes entre la banque islamique, ses deposants et ses partenaires en matiere de financement et d’investissement peut contribuer a une meilleure repartition des risques, au renforcement des operations de financement par les fonds propres et la reduction de l’ecart entre la sphere financiere et la sphere reelle. Compte tenu de sa dimension ethique et cooperative, les institutions financieres conventionnelles ont interet a amener une reflexion sur les principes directeurs de la finance islamique, non seulement pour leur propre benefice mais aussi pour l’ensemble de leurs partenaires. Mots-cles : finance islamique, principes ethiques, partage de pertes et profits.
Law as Palimpsest: Conceptualizing Contingency in Judicial Opinions (forthcoming 2009)
Metaphors create conceptualizations, and for decades legal academics have employed metaphors to shape understandings of legal problems. But no metaphor in current use successfully conceptualizes the contingency of judicial opinions and the complexity of the relationship between opinions and precedent. This Article seeks to fill this void by introducing a new metaphor, the palimpsest, into the realm of legal analysis. A palimpsest is a writing surface that can be cleared away for reuse, like a personal blackboard. What distinguishes a palimpsest from other writing surfaces is that its removed contents do not disappear, but remain, obscured yet recoverable: A writing on a palimpsest never goes away. This Article argues that thinking of judicial opinions as being part of a shared, ever-evolving palimpsest underscores the fact that they are ultimately contingent and serves as a reminder of the multiple levels of interconnectedness between them and the cases they cite. Precedents—like the underlayers of a palimpsest—never go away, and they inform and shape the application of opinions in ways far more significant than simply serving as points of reference. A palimpsestic approach to understanding judicial decisionmaking also helps to explain why even the oldest, most reviled cases remain part of our national psyche—like underlayers of a palimpsest, they can never truly disappear, and their continued presence forces us to grapple with their existence. Finally, considering judicial opinions as part of a shared palimpsest reminds us that even the most troubling opinion is ultimately contingent, its application subject to reexamination and revision by future courts and future generations. Just as such an opinion replaces its precedents, it too will one day be replaced, like each of a palimpsest’s layers. 2 Law as Palimpsest [Vol. __:__ Law as Palimpsest: Conceptualizing Contingency in Judicial Opinions