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- Dec 17, 2009
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Last Tuesday, Florida Circuit Judge Richard Nielsen defended his decision to uphold a binding arbitration agreement, based upon Sharia Law, between ex-trustees of a local Mosque who claim to have been unfairly removed by the current leadership of that Mosque. The Islamic arbitration ruled in favor of the ex-trustees. The current leadership appealed, which is why the matter ended up before Judge Neilson:
Florida Judge Defends Decision to Allow Sharia Law to Decide Civil Case (Wizbang)
Say you sign a contract with a firm in the United Arab Emirates. That contract will have a “choice of law” clause, mandating under the law of which country the contract will be construed. Firms obviously haggle over this, and usually firms will want to have the choice of law clause based upon a law with which they are familiar. Indeed, I know several trasnactional attorneys who specialize in drawing up contracts to comply with Sharia for big investment deals, and undoubtedly some of those contracts say something along the lines that they will be construed according to Sharia, or at least will not directly violate Sharia.
So when Gingrich says that he wants a statute forbidding the enforcement of Sharia in the United States, he is saying he wants to 1) tell businesses how they are supposed to write their contracts; and 2) thus give American businesses a competitive disadvantage via-a-vis their foreign competitors.
Similarly, Sharia would come into play if US courts have to construe contracts written and executed in Muslim countries that use Sharia as part of their domestic law. A contract might be signed, executed, and acted upon in another country, making Sharia law clearly the governing body of law; but then the litigant moves to the United States (thus getting the jurisdiction of American courts), requiring the court to construe the contract and use Sharia in doing so.
Sharia Law IS Enforced in the United States « The Reality-Based Community
Be careful who you do business with. Read those contracts! If you sign a contract and in doing so agree to have any disputes negotiated under Sharia law, that is what will happen. Sharia is comint to the US as we speak in the guise of 'choice of law' clauses in contracts.