ESTOPPEL – DO THE COMMON LAWAND SHARÔ‘AH HAVE THE SAME APPROACH? (A COMPARATIVE JURISPRUDENTIALAPPROACH)

Abstract

Estoppel, being a legal concept, both in SharÊ‘ah and Conventional law, is studied in minute detail in these legal regimes. The present work is, therefore, an attempt to probe into profound details of estoppel in Islamic and Conventional law at theoretical and operational levels. The work of classical and contemporary jurists, in both legal systems, is looked into for the investigation of the issue under discussion. However, in case of SharÊ‘ah, the scholastic work of classical fuqahÉ (Jurists of Islamic Law) is preferred more comparatively to that of contemporary scholars for the former being more reliable. The concept of estoppel is explicated here at three levels philosophical, strategic and operational. Findings prove that estoppel in SharÊ‘ah has more depth, as all the three levels than conventional law. Being a social science subject, qualitative research method is used where the secondary data has been critically analyzed thorough content analysis technique.