ABSTRACT
Illegality under foreign law In the day when Lord Mansfield sat on the bench, the attitude towards foreign law was quite different. It was said that: ‘The courts in this country do not take notice of foreign revenue law’.186 Whether Lord Mansfield had just foreign revenue law or all foreign laws in mind was not made clear. Holding the view that, ‘one nation does not take notice of the revenue law of another’, the insurance on the adventure was held not to be illegal even though the outcome of the case would in effect lead to the defrauding of a foreign legal system. This privilege of not having to take notice of any foreign laws cannot nowadays be carried too far, especially when a ‘friendly’ state is involved. This was made clear by the House of Lords in Regazzoni v KC Sethia (1944) Ltd,187 where Viscount Simonds declared that:
Any adventure contravening a foreign law which had not been acted upon or enforced by its own country would not constitute a breach of the implied warranty. This was held in Francis, Times and Co v Sea Insurance Co,188 where insured goods, consisting of arms and ammunition, were sent to Persia where there was an edict issued by the Persian government prohibiting the importation of arms and ammunition into Persia. It was well-known that so long as duties were paid there was no prospect of interference by the authorities who were aware that the trade was open and notorious. As this law was never implemented, Mr Justice Bingham held that the voyage was not, according to the law of Persia, an illegal voyage.
