ABSTRACT
11.1 French insurance law has a long historical tradition: it emerged notably, thanks to the “Le Guidon de la Mer”, 2 which was written in the late sixteenth century. This treatise had a major influence on the “Ordonnance de la Mer” dated 1681 which codified for the first time maritime law and maritime insurance law. 3 The Commercial Insurance Code1807 was still in force until 1967, 4 at which point marine insurance law was codified as part of the Insurance Code 5 under Title VII of Book 1 (Articles L.171–1 to L.174–6). 6 Where the marine provisions conflict with the common insurance provisions, the marine provisions prevail. Although French marine insurance law has been constantly modernised in order to comply with market practices, French marine insurance policies supplement the deficiencies of the Commercial Insurance Code to the extent that the code has become out of date.
