Choice of law.

Submitted by Mitchforth (United States), Apr 2, 2009 at 13:59

Good job by Pipes and NRO for correctly understanding that any application of Sharia in US courts would be related to commercial transactions.

Islam, like Judaism, contains expansive rules and codes governing all kinds of conduct; Sharia is roughly analogous to Jewish Halakha. There's much more to it than burqas and honor killings, and the Sharia rules on contracts and finance are relevant to various commercial entities that are interested in dealing with wealthy sheikhs and Islamic sovereign wealth funds.

To the extent international deals are governed by Sharia law at the agreement of the parties, US courts will interpret them as the parties intended.

Koh is the dean of the Yale Law School. He runs a school that trains elite lawyers who serve business interests. He's not secretly trying to replace US criminal laws with Sharia. He's not trying to replace Constitutional rights with Sharia. He's not a Muslim.

He's merely saying that the US may offer a forum for disputes involving Sharia contracts.

http://mitchforth.blogspot.com

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Daniel Pipes replies:

"Sharia is roughly analogous to Jewish Halakha."

Yes and no. Analogous in that they both cover private life. Different in that Shari'a also covers public life and Halakha does not.