ABSTRACT

This chapter summarizes and introduces the UK insurance contract law reform project, with regard particularly to marine insurance law. English law reform will be highlighted for the purpose of improving the legal regime applicable to the Chinese marine insurance market and effectively implement the general insurance law in the marine field. Interestingly, major reforms of the new Chinese Act regarding insurance contract law embrace a number of the same questions as those considered in the context of the UK law reform project. The modern regime of English insurance law has been largely derived and developed from early marine insurance, which is the oldest form of insurance known to the common law jurisdictions. The business of marine insurance was firmly developed in England by as early as the sixteenth century. Given this development of the insurance market over a considerable period of time, substantial numbers of cases have inevitably accumulated and eventually established a set of systematic principles under English law.