ABSTRACT
The Insurance Act is the first comprehensive statutory reform of non-consumer insurance law since the Marine Insurance Act 1906, which essentially codified the existing common law. It is the product of extensive efforts by the Law Commissions of England and Wales, and Scotland, to reform UK insurance law, a process begun more than 50 years ago. The Insurance Act makes very significant changes to insurance law in the United Kingdom. It has been variously described as a 'thorough overhaul' of UK insurance law; 'the most significant reform of the nation's insurance law' for 250 years; and (less promisingly) as in some respects 'uncertain and obscure'; and a 'risky sacrifice of the prized certainty of business insurance law'. The Act is intended to level the playing field between the parties to a contract of insurance, which was previously seen as unduly favourable to the insurer.
