Dr Amel Makhlouf is highly experienced in Islamic commercial law (fiqh al-muamalat), in Islamic finance and in the laws of the Arab Middle East. She has over 10 years' experience in structuring, documenting and negotiating complex Islamic finance transactions including hawala, ijarah, istisna, mudarabah, murabahah, musharakah et wakalah agreements.
She provides her domestic and international clients with innovative solutions in relation to legal and regulatory aspects of Islamic finance transactions. She also aims to promote a new generation of Islamic financial products and to foster the development of Islamic FinTech in the MENA region to improve financial inclusion.
Her dual expertise in international arbitration and Islamic finance enable her to be appointed in a wide range of arbitration proceedings arising from Islamic finance transactions, notably in the MENA region. As a member of the AIAC Rules Revision Committee, Dr Amel Makhlouf has submitted comments on the draft of the AIAC i-Arbitration Rules 2021 (arbitration rules guided by sharī‘ah principles).
Dr Amel Makhlouf is a research associate at the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL) at SOAS, University of London, and a member of the Management Committee of the SOAS Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Centre (SADRC). Her research interests include Islamic legal history, Islamic law of contract, Islamic finance, FinTech in Islamic finance, Islamic cryptocurrency, Islamic insurance (takaful), laws of the Arab Middle East, comparative law and international arbitration in the MENA region. In June 2023, she submitted a report to the Qatar Financial Centre addressing the challenges arising from the rise of FinTech in Islamic finance and Islamic cryptocurrency in the MENA region.
She is also the former Managing Editor for the Country Surveys of the Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (vol. 21 & 22), the leading English language journal covering contemporary Islamic laws and laws of the Middle East.
