Insurance contract law in England

Summary

This article seeks to give an account of the present state of English law applying to the contract of insurance.

It would obviously be impossible to cover the whole of that law in the space of one article and, as a result, consideration of the statutory regulation of insurance business, of the law of marine insurance and of most aspects of the laws specific to just particular types of insurance contract is excluded. The article reveals how the hitherto largely prevailing doctrine of freedom of contract in the insurance field is being influenced by non-statutory developments and how it will very soon probably be affected in certain areas by the first real legislative regulation of the law of the insurance contract. An Insurance Law Reform Bill is expected to be presented to the United Kingdom Parliament later this year.

Detailed consideration is given to the questions posed by the proposals for reform in the areas of non-disclosure and breach of warranty and to the other aspects of insurance contract law which are felt to be of general interest and which raise issues unrelated to any aspects of general contract law. Among these are the principles of indemnity and insurable interest and the law governing compulsory insurances.