3PB

Commercial; Construction and Engineering; Family; Mediation.

Overview

Ian Edge is a specialist in most legal matters concerning Islamic/Shari’a law and the laws of the Middle East. He acts as advocate in matters of commercial and private international law relating to the Middle East or Islamic law and is considered one of the leading experts on the civil and commercial laws of the Middle East (including the application of Islamic law).

His clients include governments, major corporations and banks as well as Royal and Ruling family members as well as the scions of the most well-known and leading families in the Middle East.  Ian is the only non-UAE resident member of the DIFC Legislative Council which he has sat on since its inception. Ian was appointed to the International Committee of the Bar Council as the member with responsibility for the Middle East and Chairman of the IC’s Middle East Interest Group in which role he served for four years.

Ian has written publications on commercial law with particular reference to Middle East and Islamic Law and has a good working knowledge of French and of written Arabic.

Commercial

Ian gives advice on Islamic and Middle East law to English or foreign clients, particularly in the fields of civil and commercial law, banking law (especially Islamic banking and finance issues) and estate planning (including Shari’a compliant trusts which he has helped to develop and other succession issues).

He has acted as an expert witness on Islamic and Middle East laws in courts and tribunals throughout the world and his clients include UK and US governments and many of the governments, public authorities and major corporations of the Middle East with special reference to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

Examples of work

• He recently advised Nissan in a major arbitration in Japan on the Saudi law of agency
• He advised Victor Dahdaleh in the bribery action brought against him by the SFO on Bahraini law which subsequently saw Mr Dahdaleh acquitted
• He advised on the creation of a Shari’a compliant investment fund for a high ranking Saudi investor
• He advised the SFO on Saudi Arabian law in the British Aerospace bribery case
• He advised the Foreign Office on Egyptian law in the case of Abu Hamza
• He advised the Candy brothers on Qatari law in the claim concerning the Chelsea barracks
• He advised the Kuwaiti Oil minister in the  Gruppo Torras litigation
• He assisted in the drafting of the Islamic Finance legislation for Malaysian offshore island of Labuan
• He acted as the  as the expert on Saudi Arabian law on behalf of Maan Al-Sanea in Saudi Arabia’s biggest insolvency in proceedings in New York, the Cayman Islands and London
• He acts regularly as counsel and arbitrator in international commercial arbitrations involving Middle East and foreign legal matters
• He was the main Counsel on behalf of the Angolan State Diamond Corporation in three related arbitrations in Lisbon, London and Rio de Janeiro that arose out of Angola’s termination of various diamond concessions with De Beers
• He acted in Stockholm as an arbitrator in a dispute concerning a major agency contract between a Yemeni company and a major Chinese multinational
• He acted in Paris as an arbitrator under the ICC rules concerning termination of a Syrian pharmaceutical contract with a global international
• He was appointed Chairman of an arbitration panel on an issue concerning the selling and exporting of Iraqi oil.

Mediation

Ian is an Accredited Mediator.

Family

Ian regularly advises Middle East clients on all aspects of private international law, Islamic law and Middle East law as regards family, inheritance and property matters. He has advised members of the Royal Families of Bahrain, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan as well as many of the wealthiest families in the Middle East on all manner of matrimonial and succession problems.

• He was the expert on Saudi law in the Supreme Court case of Re S
• He was the expert for the applicant on Saudi law in the case of Harb v King Fahd
• He was the only non-Saudi expert on Saudi inheritance and trust law in the case of Al-Hamrani which is the longest running case in Guernsey legal history
• He drafted a bilateral treaty on child abduction between Egypt and the UK (which was never used).

Construction and engineering

Civil Practitioner.

Ian regularly advises on construction projects in the Middle East and where Middle East laws are involved.

• He advised and was advocate in an ICC arbitration in Paris involving the Great Man Made River project in Libya
• He has advised as expert on various major construction projects in Qatar: one involving the University and another Gas storage
• He has advised on oil pipeline disputes in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

Year of call 1981

French; Arabic.

Legislative Council of the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) MCIArb MEI President of Family Division’s International Committee (as expert on Islamic and Middle East Law) Director of the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law SOAS University of London (where he teaches all aspects of Islamic and Middle East law, at Masters level as well as Masters courses on international commercial arbitration, international fraud and private international law).

MA (Cantab) LLB (Cantab)

Theatre, opera, walking, skiing.