ABSTRACT
As an insurance policy is a type of contract, principles which are invoked when construing contracts also apply when courts seek to interpret insurance terms. The courts have developed various principles or rules, but exceptions to those principles regularly occur. Some principles of construction have been more popular in certain periods and with certain judges. Insurance contracts may have implied terms as well as express terms. In practice disputes are largely about the express terms in an insurance policy and, particularly about their meaning or effect. Due to the different principles that may be deployed when seeking to construe insurance terms and some of the judiciary's hostility to certain types of terms and certain types of wording, there has been an increasing trend in recent years for parties to contest the meaning to be given to insurance terms and also to challenge whether a term is really a warranty or a condition precedent.
