The Law Commissions’ Proposed Reforms of the Law of “Warranties” in Marine and Commercial Insurance: Will the Cure Be Better Than the Disease? 1

The Symposium which took place on 3 July 2008 under the auspices of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law of Swansea University was concerned with the Law Commissions’ proposals for the reform of marine and commercial insurance so far as they affected the non-consumer market. The Marine Insurance Act 1906 is generally accepted as representing the law of both marine and non-marine insurance, although the Act does not cover all aspects of insurance law by any means. The consequences of breach of warranty form the rationale for the proposals of the Law Commissions in relation to promissory warranties. The right to terminate will only arise if the breach has sufficiently serious consequences to justify termination “under the general law of contract”. The LC has a section containing a comparative study of other common law and civil law jurisdictions in this area of the law.