ABSTRACT
In 1957, the Law Reform Committee issued their Fifth Report, which dealt with the effect of conditions and exceptions in insurance policies and of non-disclosure of material facts. The Law Commission suggested a number of reforms depending on whether the insurance contract was a consumer contract or a business insurance contract. Apart from the areas of specific reform, there is a general policy advantage in favour of insurance contracts and proposal forms being drafted in order to make the concerns of the industry and the individual underwriter plain to the assured. The designation of the duty as one of good faith suggests that there is a morality underlying the open dealing required of the parties to the insurance contract. In 1979, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a Council Directive co-ordinating the laws regulating provisions included in insurance contracts in order to strike a fair balance between the interests of the insurer and the protection of the assured.
