Banking Contracts and Sharia Rules within the European Union Framework

The paper deals with the application of Sharia rules within the European legal framework for banking contracts. It attempts to ascertain whether Sharia rules can be legally enforceable in contracts made between a Muslim client and a bank. The paper comprises five sections, all of which refer to the European legal framework. In section 1, the paper provides for the three catchwords of the analysis, “integration”, “Sharia” and “contract”; in section 2, the paper focuses on the scope of the non-discrimination principle on the grounds of religion; section 3 aims to clarify who the parties of the contracts at issue are with a view to ascertaining whether a European credit institution is per se entitled to provide Sharia-complaint products; section 4 points to the principle of incorporation and how it might make Sharia rules operate as applicable law or contracting terms. Finally, section 5 draws some conclusions