Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality?

Ideally, takaful should be formed on mutual basis and operated by a mutual company owned by takaful participants. Under the mutual structure, the company has its own legal personality whereby it can own assets and carry liabilities. At present, takaful is widely formed under a hybrid of mutual and c...

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Main Authors: Salleh, Safinar, Ibrahim, Uzaimah, Zahraa, Mahdi
Format: Proceeding Paper
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/43335/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/43335/1/Safinar_ICLAS.pdf
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author Salleh, Safinar
Ibrahim, Uzaimah
Zahraa, Mahdi
author_facet Salleh, Safinar
Ibrahim, Uzaimah
Zahraa, Mahdi
author_sort Salleh, Safinar
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
description Ideally, takaful should be formed on mutual basis and operated by a mutual company owned by takaful participants. Under the mutual structure, the company has its own legal personality whereby it can own assets and carry liabilities. At present, takaful is widely formed under a hybrid of mutual and commercial structure operated by licensed takaful companies. Under this hybrid structure, a takaful fund shall be established on mutual basis and owned by the participants. On the other hand, the takaful company is a commercial entity proprietarily owned by shareholders. Several issues arising in the operation of takaful under this hybrid structure, such as the status of ownership of takaful fund and its surplus. The fund neither belong to the takaful company nor the participants because they have donated their contributions. Some scholars say, the fund itself is the owner of all the contributions, profits and surplus. To enable the fund to become the owner of the contributions and the surplus, it is suggested that the fund should have its own legal personality. Thus, this paper aims to determine the need and feasibility of assigning a legal personality to the takaful fund from Shariah and legal perspectives. It discusses the concept of legal personality in Islamic law followed by the analysis on its applicability to the takaful fund. This study is an academic legal research which involves doctrinal analysis and review of relevant statutes and literatures including Islamic classical texts and scholarly journals and publications. In principle, this study finds that there is a need to assign legal personality to the takaful fund in order to solve certain Shariah issues in the operation of takaful. From the legal perspective, IFSA seems to recognise the legal personality of takaful fund.
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spelling iium-433352016-05-23T07:57:19Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/43335/ Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality? Salleh, Safinar Ibrahim, Uzaimah Zahraa, Mahdi HF Commerce Ideally, takaful should be formed on mutual basis and operated by a mutual company owned by takaful participants. Under the mutual structure, the company has its own legal personality whereby it can own assets and carry liabilities. At present, takaful is widely formed under a hybrid of mutual and commercial structure operated by licensed takaful companies. Under this hybrid structure, a takaful fund shall be established on mutual basis and owned by the participants. On the other hand, the takaful company is a commercial entity proprietarily owned by shareholders. Several issues arising in the operation of takaful under this hybrid structure, such as the status of ownership of takaful fund and its surplus. The fund neither belong to the takaful company nor the participants because they have donated their contributions. Some scholars say, the fund itself is the owner of all the contributions, profits and surplus. To enable the fund to become the owner of the contributions and the surplus, it is suggested that the fund should have its own legal personality. Thus, this paper aims to determine the need and feasibility of assigning a legal personality to the takaful fund from Shariah and legal perspectives. It discusses the concept of legal personality in Islamic law followed by the analysis on its applicability to the takaful fund. This study is an academic legal research which involves doctrinal analysis and review of relevant statutes and literatures including Islamic classical texts and scholarly journals and publications. In principle, this study finds that there is a need to assign legal personality to the takaful fund in order to solve certain Shariah issues in the operation of takaful. From the legal perspective, IFSA seems to recognise the legal personality of takaful fund. 2015 Proceeding Paper PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/43335/1/Safinar_ICLAS.pdf Salleh, Safinar and Ibrahim, Uzaimah and Zahraa, Mahdi (2015) Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality? In: 4th International Conference on Law & Society (ICLAS IV) 2015 , 10th-11th May 2015, Auditorium, Academic Building (UniSZA), Kuala Trengganu. https://www.unisza.edu.my/iclas2015/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured
spellingShingle HF Commerce
Salleh, Safinar
Ibrahim, Uzaimah
Zahraa, Mahdi
Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality?
title Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality?
title_full Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality?
title_fullStr Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality?
title_full_unstemmed Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality?
title_short Legal personality of Takaful fund: myth or reality?
title_sort legal personality of takaful fund: myth or reality?
topic HF Commerce
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/43335/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/43335/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/43335/1/Safinar_ICLAS.pdf