Introduction

This chapter explores insurance law in the Commonwealth Caribbean as it evolves amidst dynamic reorganisation in global commerce with concomitant responses in the law. Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions are 16 in number: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos. During the period of colonial rule, the Commonwealth Caribbean insurance industry reflected its umbilical tie to the United Kingdom. Throughout most of the twentieth century, legislation governing insurance operations in the Commonwealth Caribbean was largely inadequate as it related to the requirement of insurable interest and the status of the beneficiary. The Insurance Committee of the Caribbean Law Institute produced a Status Report on Insurance Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Insurance bodies providing educational and technical assistance exist in all Commonwealth Caribbean territories.