Year
2014
Country
Qatar
Language
English
Abstract
| Among many Islamic finance instruments, Sukuk, commonly called Islamic bonds, has in recent years been considered as the most effective mid and long-term financing method, producing the most liquid assets. This instrument gained attention especially after the 2008 financial crisis and has become one of the fastest-growing Islamic financial instruments not only in Muslim countries but also Muslim-minority countries. However, the introduction of Sukuk has faced legal and regulatory problems as most Muslim-minority countries are governed by their own legal system independent of Shariah, which is applied in Islamic finance. As we can see from Malaysia's development of Islamic finance, a strong legal and regulatory foundation contributes to the progress of Islamic finance and Sukuk. Given the importance of the legal system, this research aims to examine the legal and regulatory issues involved in issuing Sukuk in general and in the Korean context with hypothesis that the degree of the development or adoption of Sukuk would differ among different legal regimes. The first chapter explains the background of this research. The second chapter introduces Sukuk and studies its historical development to its contemporary definition. The third chapter examines legal and regulatory issues facing Sukuk, specifically securitization, taxation, bankruptcy, dispute resolution, and trust law. The following chapter analyzes case studies involving two legal systems: Common law and Civil law regimes. The case studies illustrate the legal dimension of the adoption of Sukuk in the United Kingdom, Singapore, France, and Japan. The fifth chapter presents the main contribution of this research; it introduces South Korea's present condition of Islamic finance and examines the current legal and regulatory challenges to adopt Sukuk. In the final section of this chapter, the experiences of the case study countries are applied to analyze Korea's introduction of Sukuk. As a result, this section suggests probable proposal for Korea's adoption of Sukuk stating that any certificates that act in a similar manner as does a foreign currency bond would be under the same regulation and tax policy. The last chapter summarizes the findings of this research. Korea could adopt the ideas developed by the case study countries to ease changing laws and adopting Sukuk. The case studies' implications can aid in solving not only legal problems but also other problems Korea faces. By adopting Sukuk, Korea could expect many benefits such as future economic stability and development, given the global importance and potential of Islamic finance and Sukuk. |
English
No. of Pages
156p.
Degree
M.Sc
Select type of work
Institution
CIS Program Old
CIS publications
No
CIS Thesis
Yes
CIS Library Call Number
Thesis QFIS IF 2014/1