Abstract:
Islamic banking and finance is relatively a new component in the
contemporary financial industry and growing fast across the globe.
Consequently, like in any other area of business, occurrence of
disputes that arise among stakeholders is unavoidable and normal.
However, resolution of such disputes without prejudice to the business
relationship is imperative. The deficiencies that exist in the litigation
process necessitate the industry players to find alternative ways of
dispute resolution which is cheaper, protects privacy and is less formal.
This chapter examines the possibility of application of various ways of
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for Islamic banking and finance
disputes.
A number of ADR mechanisms have been developed besides litigation
across the globe. ADR includes a number of out-of-court conflict
management and dispute resolution mechanisms such as negotiation,
ombudsman, mediation, arbitration, fact-finding, dispute resolution
boards, and other related dispute resolution processes. ADR is widely
encouraged for Islamic banking and finance disputes in many countries
such as Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, etc. where Islamic
banking is extensively practised.1 Hence, this chapter focuses on a few
ADR mechanisms such as arbitration, mediation and ombudsman only
as the scope does not allow covering all of them.
