Dr. Jonathan Ercanbrack

  • External legal counsel (London), AM Avocat

  • Reader in Transnational Financial Law, SOAS University of London

  • Director, Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL), SOAS University of London

  • Institution host of the annual SOAS-Qatar Financial Centre Islamic Finance Public Lecture and Workshop (London)

  • Member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamic and Ethical Finance, the UK hybrid Islamic Finance Group (London)

Language proficiencies:

  • English: Mother tongue | German: Professional Working Proficiency

  • Italian: Elementary Proficiency

  • Arabic: Basics, Elementary Proficiency

Dr. Jonathan G. Ercanbrack is a Senior Lecturer at SOAS University of London and Director of the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL). Based in London, he acts as External Legal Counsel at AM Avocat, advising on banking and finance, digital finance, Islamic law and finance, and international dispute resolution, with a particular focus on the MENA region.

He is the author of The Transformation of Islamic Law in Global Financial Markets (Cambridge University Press 2015), which conceptualises the transformation of Islamic rules and principles in global financial markets as a form of transnational law.

In 2024, he co-authored Islamic Contract Law (OUP 2024), which provides a modern, contract law framed account of Islamic contractual rules and principles. He has published a number of peer reviewed journal articles including The Standardization of Islamic Financial Law: Lawmaking in Global Financial Markets, which Oxford University Press editors selected as one of the best comparative law journal articles in 2021.

Dr. Ercanbrack’s current research focusses on the socio-economic and comparative contractual implications of blockchain and smart contract technologies.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Gesellschaft für Arabisches und Islamisches Recht (GAIR), a member of the UK hybrid Islamic Finance Group, the Global South Economic Crimes Network, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), the Society of Legal Scholars, a regular speaker at the Cambridge Symposium for Economic Crime, and the institutional host of the annual SOAS-QFC Islamic Finance Public Lecture and Workshop.

He regularly consults for leading law firms as well as public authorities such as the UK’s National Crime Agency. Dr Ercanbrack was educated at the University of Utah (B.A. German language and literature), the Universität Heidelberg (Vordiplom, Germanistik and Economics), the London School of Economics (MSc, Politics of Empire and Post Imperialism) and the SOAS University of London (PhD, Law).