Page 166 - IANUS n. 26 - Fideiussioni omnibus e intesa antitrust: interferenze e rimedi
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VALENTINO CATTELAN





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               society:   in  this  way,  in  the  ‘fight’  between  gods  and  men  for  ruling  the
               (un)expected, the former get their own back. On the Arab side, if Brunschvig
               underlines how in classical Islamic thought «like any good and useful good, gold
               (dhahab) and silver (fidda, wariq) have been created and given generously by God
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               to the disposition of the human being»  (and here, indirectly, rizq ﻕﺯﺭ reappears
               again), much has still to be investigated on the conception of money and credit
               relations  (dayn)  in  Islamic  finance.  Metaphorically  speaking,  another  voyage
               through the Mediterranean is certainly needed.
                  Second,  if  an  alternative  conceptualization  of  risk  characterizes  Islamic
               finance,  as  this  article  has  tried  to  highlight,  it  seems  to  me  that  further
               consideration should be given to this diverse, while still remarkable, story of risk
               in  financial  regulation,  too.  In  fact,  while  a  plural  financial  system,  where
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               different conceptions of economic justice(s) co- exist and influence each other,
               may  still  be  distant,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  a  level  playing  field,  where
               conventional and Islamic finance will be able to co-exist and prosper in the same
               marketplace,  will  necessarily  have  to  consider  how  parameters  of  capital
               adequacy and governance for Islamic financial institutions should be adapted in
               the light of their peculiar model of risk management, requiring amendments ad
               hoc to international standards (e.g., Basel criteria). These adaptations, far from
               certifying  ‘god’s  victory’  over  the  human  story  of  risk,  will  foster  a  fair
               competition  in  a  marketplace  where  Islamic  and  conventional  finance  will
               properly integrate one aside the other, under the same (God’s) sky.
                  In the end, if on the one side the remarkable story of risk leads our rationality
               as well as imagination to deal with the (un)expected, between gods’ and men’s
               power, and in this way «helps define what it means to be a human being» and
               «how free we are to make choices»,  on the other side a comparative study of risk
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               in  financial  theory  may  lead  “to  alternative  perspectives  on  economic
               development and social integration, nourishing […] an open society through the
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               centrality of individual freedom”.
                  And this freedom to choose among alternative financial models may be what
               the future story of risk will be about.







                  58  LE GOFF, La bourse et la vie. Economie et religion au Moyen Age, Paris, 1986, LE GOFF, Le Moyen
               Age et l’argent. Essai d’anthropologie historique, Paris, 2010.
                  59   BRUNSCHVIG,  Conceptions  monétaires  chez  les  juristes  musulmans  (VIII-XIII  siècles),  in
               BRUNSCHVIG (ed.), Études d’islamologie, Vol. II, Paris, 1976, 273.
                  60  CATTELAN (ed.), Islamic finance in Europe: towards a plural financial system, Studies in Islamic
               Finance, Accounting and Governance, Cheltenham, UK - Northampton, MA, USA, 2013.
                  61  BERNSTEIN, Against the gods: the remarkable story of risk, cit., 8.
                  62   CATTELAN,  Towards  a  plural  financial  system,  in CATTELAN  (ed.),  Islamic  finance  in  Europe:
               towards a plural financial system, cit., 232.

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