Halal certification under Shariah law and WTO trade rules in religious and secular legal orders

This research examines the normative junctures between Shariah (Islamic law) principles underneath halal (permissible) certification and the secular regulatory order of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It investigates how divine injunctions governing lawful consumption, as articulated in the Qur’an “O mankind, eat from whatever is on earth that is lawful (halalan) and pure (tayyiban)” (Al-Baqarah 2:168) confront the WTO’s doctrines of Non-Discrimination, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures. Employing a doctrinal and comparative legal methodology, the paper interrogates whether faith-based regulatory systems can coexist within the Universalist structure of trade liberalisation. It critically analyses the theological and jurisprudential diversity within Islamic law, including the role of fiqh (jurisprudence) and ijtihad (reasoned interpretation), in shaping halal compliance. Further, it exposes the power asymmetries between developed and developing countries in global standard-setting, revealing how secular universalism often marginalises religiously grounded norms. The Quranic injunction “Do not eat of that upon which the name of Allah has not been mentioned” (Al-An‘am 6:121) illustrates the obligatory nature (fard) of halal observance, which challenges the WTO’s neutrality paradigm. Through a critical assessment of regulatory pluralism, the paper contends that genuine global trade justice requires an inclusive legal framework recognising multiple epistemic foundations of legitimacy. It concludes that reconciling religious authenticity with secular trade governance demands interpretive flexibility, institutional reform, and dialogic coexistence between divine normativity and multilateral legality. This study addresses the lack of a structured legal framework for evaluating halal certification within WTO law. Using a doctrinal and comparative methodology, it develops a legal pluralist approach to assess the accommodation of religiously grounded regulatory systems within secular trade governance.