Is the recent mortgage documentation scandal merely a case of 'procedural problems,' to be quickly moved past, or is it indicative of massive fraud that has profound implications for the entire conventional mortgage industry. Yves Smith's New York Times Op-Ed  addresses some of the issues at stake. She notes 

"Evidence is mounting that these [procedural] requirements were widely ignored. Judges are noticing: more are finding that banks cannot prove that they have the standing to foreclose on the properties that were bundled into securities. If this were a mere procedural problem, the banks could foreclose once they marshaled their evidence. But banks who are challenged in many cases do not resume these foreclosures, indicating that their lapses go well beyond minor paperwork (my emphasis)."

Robust and dynamic ethico-legal systems are characterized by a balance between considerations of form and substance. This is a point that should be remembered the next time that Islamic financial ethicists' traditionally-informed concern for the form--as well as the 'substance'--of contracts is derided by external and internal critics.

Registration is open for the summer courses!  Browse the Course Catalog and Enroll here: http://straightwayethical.com/catalog.php

Instructor: Taha Abdul-Basser
Assistant Instructor: Faraz Rabbani

Description: In these 3 audience-specific short courses (for finance professionals, lawyers, and emerging Shari`ah scholars respectively), participants will be introduced to basic and intermediate-level concepts in Islamic financial ethics and law through a survey of several of the AAOIFI Shari`ah Standards. Specifically, we will review key precepts (mabadi`), principles (qawa`id) and ethico-legal values (ahkam), that are relevant to the application of the Islamic financial ethico-legal tradition (fiqh al-mu`amalat) to the domain of modern finance.

Location: Short courses are offered via Straightway Ethical's web-based training platform.

Duration: Summer Session (Jul 1-Aug 1). The first lecture will be available for download on July 1.

Here are more details on the previously announced NYC Bar CLE event, "Structuring a Shari`a Compliant Transaction"
in which I will be participating in sha'Allah on Wed, Jun 10, 2009 @ 6pm. . The following is a description from the NYC Bar site.