Hisba as a Foundation of Islamic Economic Law: Regulation of Competition in Competition and non-Competition Markets

Hisba is a regulatory regime in Islamic law which could be a base for Islamic economic regulation but has been neglected for centuries. The protection of integrity of the market and competition is a prominent economic and legal objective in modern economies. However، the focus in the Islamic law has been on the bipolar relations among the individuals in the form of law of contract or law of tort. As such there has been little attention towards Hisba which is a nongovernmental public institution for regulation of market. The current paper is seeking to elaborate the role of this institutions in terms of maintaining competition in the market on the basis of Islamic law. This paper shall partly introduce the Hisba and its potentials as a regulatory institutions for regulating market in general and shall then examine the use of this institution to build up a legal regime based on Islamic law and principles for regulation both contestable markets (competition law) and regulating non contestable markets (sector regulation) in the Islamic countries.