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This paper focuses on the drivers steering companies’ behaviour over uses of patented health technologies, taking Covid-19 as a case study. Global equitable access to health technologies is vital to bringing the pandemic under control. Reflecting this, global mechanisms for rightsholders to share intellectual property rights, data and know-how over such health technologies have been developed. Yet, to date, there is limited support from corporate rightsholders for such mechanisms. Instead, health technologies have been licensed largely based on bilateral deals, with vast global inequalities emerging. Given the traditional focus within company law on prioritising shareholders’ short-term financial value, we argue that it is unsurprising that many corporate rightsholders adopt a protectionist approach to patents, even in the face of health crises. However, we argue that the tide may now be starting to shift, catalysed by an emergence of engaged shareholders petitioning for socially responsible corporate behaviour, including for uses of intellectual property over health technologies in a manner that more clearly aligns with public interests. If harnessed and encouraged, such engaged shareholder behaviour could present an opportunity to reframe the conception of shareholder value towards one that considers a long-term sustainable approach and ultimately to shift corporate behaviour around uses of intellectual property over health technologies to take public interests into account. © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Legal Scholars.

Responsible finance ṣukūk provide market participants with a capital markets instrument through which they can fulfil the dictates of Islamic law while also participating in green, social or sustainable economic activity. However, as centres for Islamic finance (such as Malaysia and Indonesia) become prominent markets for responsible finance ṣukūk, issuances of these instruments have been noticeably slower to develop in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This has not been due to a lack of public enthusiasm for a sustainable economy from UAE authorities. However, the plethora of government sustainability initiatives, statements and targets has resulted in somewhat of a patchwork of policies, not all of which are publicly available or centrally curated. This article will aim to map the UAE’s sustainability agenda and consider where responsible finance ṣukūk fit within this agenda. Against this backdrop, it will analyse the contractual structure of the UAE’s first issuance of responsible finance ṣukūk.

Conventional responsible finance provides investors with an opportunity to combine financial returns with broader societal impact in their investment activity. This emphasis on financial and extra-financial considerations has led to suggestions that there are innate similarities between responsible finance and Islamic finance, as financial activity guided by religious principles. It has not been until recently, however, that the sukuk market has sought to establish its place within the wider responsible finance market. This has led to debut issuances of green, social and sustainability sukuk, and the piecemeal development of precedents for future issuances. This article explores legal aspects of the nascent responsible finance sukuk market. In doing so, it provides an in-depth discussion of the legal structure of responsible finance sukuk issuances and reflects on claims that Islamic finance and responsible finance are naturally compatible.

Over the last decade, Irish authorities have introduced accommodative measures to clarify and legislate for Islamic finance activity under Irish law. These measures have focused on the taxation of certain Islamic finance structures and have been designed to increase the alignment of tax treatment between these Islamic finance structures and their conventional alternatives. While there remain shortcomings in the current treatment of Islamic finance under Irish law, the steps taken to date by the Irish government to accommodate Islamic finance activity are to be welcomed and they go some way towards positioning Ireland as an economy in which Islamic finance activity is encouraged. This chapter will consider some of the specifics of Irish law that are relevant to Islamic finance. It will outline the approach to accommodating Islamic finance taken by the Irish government and the applicable legislative and regulatory framework. It will then discuss the current position under Irish law of three Islamic finance products: ṣukūk; Islamic investment funds; and Islamic mortgage alternatives.