Insurance Law

8 Key excerpts on "Insurance Law"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  Construction Insurance and UK Construction Contracts

  • Roger ter Haar, Anna Laney, Marshall Levine(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Informa Law from Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 2General rules and principles of Insurance Law

  Definition of insurance

  2.1 Before considering the application of insurance to construction contracts it is necessary to consider the basic principles relating to contracts of insurance. This chapter is by no means comprehensive but should give the reader a good understanding.1 References in this chapter to “contract” are references to the contract of insurance.

  2.2 Insurance in the construction context is generally a contract to indemnify, i.e. the insured will recover compensation for his actual loss and in order to recover will have to prove his loss. This may occur where judgment has been given, or an award made, against the insured, or where, with the insurer’s consent, the insured has reached a settlement with the third party. The principle of indemnity will be implied into the contract. This type of contract should be distinguished from insurance contracts that promise to pay a specified sum upon the happening of an insured event (for example life insurance, contracts of guarantee or performance bonds).

  2.3 Despite the vast amount of legislation regulating insurance companies and the conduct of their business, there is no statutory definition of insurance. However, an excellent general description of the nature of insurance was given by Channell J in Prudential Insurance Co v IRC :2

  It must be a contract whereby for some consideration, usually but not necessarily in periodical payments called premiums, you secure to yourself some benefit, usually but not necessarily the payment of a sum of money, upon the happening of some event … the event should be one that involves some amount of uncertainty. There must be either uncertainty whether the event will happen or not, or if the event is one which must happen at some time there must be some uncertainty as to the time at which it will happen. The remaining essential is … that the insurance must be against something.

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  The Regulation of Insurance in China

  • Zhen Jing(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Informa Law from Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The Insurance Law 1995 is the first comprehensive set of Insurance Laws since the establishment of the PRC in 1949. In combination with other pertinent statutory provisions, it represented a basic legal framework for insurance operations and was playing a significant role in the development of China’s insurance industry and the growth of China’s insurance market. The Insurance Law 1995 has several features, as follows:

  • (1) Most Insurance Laws in other jurisdictions of the world have not contained the objectives of legislation on Insurance Law. The Insurance Law, however, expressly stipulated the objective of the legislation. Article 1 of the Insurance Law states:
    This law is formulated in order to regulate insurance activities, protect the lawful rights and interests of the parties in insurance activities, strengthen the supervision and control of the insurance industry and promote the healthy development of the insurance business.
    This article makes it very clear that the Insurance Law aims to provide legal protection for the healthy development of the insurance industry and the insurance market and to promote the growth of a socialist market economy.
  • (2) The Insurance Law 1995 combines the insurance contract law and insurance company law into one statute. Thus the Insurance Law regulates not only the relations between the two parties of an insurance contract but also the relations between the State and insurance companies and the behaviours of the insurance companies in the insurance market; it also governs the activities of insurance intermediaries (insurance agents and brokers).
  • (3) The Insurance Law 1995 reflects the legislative principle of tailoring the law to China’s own circumstances. This principle means that the legislation on insurance not only is in accordance with the aims of the State regarding reforms of the insurance structures but also gives consideration to the actual situation 34 that insurance companies were being transformed from old system to new one.
    34

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  Insurance Law: An Introduction

  • Robert Merkin, Robert Merkin(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Informa Law from Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Much Insurance Law derives from case law, although there is a small amount of important legislation. Most significant is the Marine Insurance Act 1906, which codified the case law as it existed at that time (and which, despite its name, is in many regards applicable to insurance contracts which are not marine in nature). Other relevant legislation includes the Life Assurance Act 1774, which lays down formal requirements for life assurance contracts, and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which deals with the regulation of insurance and other financial services in the United Kingdom. This legislation will be encountered throughout the book.

  FORMATION OF AN INSURANCE CONTRACT

  Introduction

  This section describes the legal rules which apply to the formation of an insurance contract. The usual rules of English contract law apply, so for a valid contract to come into being, there needs to be (i) an offer, (ii) an acceptance of that offer, (iii) valuable consideration, and (iv) certainty as to the material terms of the contract so that the courts are able to enforce the contract. We explain each of these below. We also describe the special “duty of utmost good faith” which applies in the formation of insurance contracts.

  We then consider the form of the contract, at what stage the insurer becomes “on risk”, and the provision of temporary cover in the interim.

  Offer

  The normal method of obtaining insurance is for the party seeking insurance to complete a proposal form, and sometimes to provide further information known as an underwriting submission. This is usually provided to the insurer through an intermediary (an insurance broker).

  The insurer will decide whether or not it is willing to offer the insurance sought, and on what terms. For example, the insurer may insist that the insurance has exclusions for risks which it considers to be unacceptably high. The insurer will also set a price, which is likely to depend on the degree of risk and the amount of cover required.

  Acceptance

  A binding contract will be deemed to arise when the insured and the insurer have agreed the key terms of the insurance. The normal analysis is that the insurer makes the offer of coverage to the insured, and that the offer is accepted by the insured showing consent to those terms by paying the premium or some other act.

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  Fundamentals of International Aviation Law and Policy

  • Benjamyn I. Scott, Andrea Trimarchi(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  9

  A class of insurance is aviation insurance. Again, there is no international law definition of ‘aviation insurance’. However, it can be generally understood as insurance that “embraces the insurance of risks associated with (a) the manufacture, ownership, operation and maintenance of aircraft, and (b) the operation of aviation facilities on the surface.”10 Therefore, aviation insurance can be defined as insurance covering aviation risks, activities and stakeholders.11

  9.3 Applicable Law

  As highlighted above, “[a]viation insurance is governed by national law and the terms and conditions of insurance policies are defined and interpreted by national law.”12 Key sources are:

  • domestic contract law;

  • domestic Insurance Law;13

  • rights and obligations found in the insurance contract; and

  • aviation law.

  London is the largest aviation insurance market with its specialised infrastructure of brokers, specialist lawyers, reinsurers and loss adjustors collectively being called ‘the London Market’.14

  Definitions

  Adjustors: The person that investigates a loss and assesses the amount of the compensation on behalf of the insurer.

  Brokers: This person that acts on behalf of the insured to find insurers, negotiate and place the insurance contract and manages the policy.

  Exposure: The amount of hazard threatening a risk.

  Insurance Policy: The legal document issued to the insured which sets out the terms of the insurance contract.15

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  The Fundamentals of Insurance

  Theories, Principles and Practices

  • Hargovind Dayal(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Notion Press

    (Publisher)

  Over a period of time the adjudication of disputes by law courts has created a body of common law and a set of interpretations which is now globally accepted. This has resulted in the evolution of five basic principles which are widely regarded as the foundation of insurance business and contracts. These basic principles of insurance do not contradict or conflict with the general principles of contract law, but suitably modify them according to the specific context of insurance business, and we will now examine them and their application in detail.

  Passage contains an image CHAPTER 6 Insurance Dynamics Basic Principles; Insurable Interest; Utmost Good Faith; Proximate Cause; Indemnity; Sum Insured, Market Value and Depreciation; Condition of Average and Under-Insurance; Contribution and Subrogation The Basic Principles of Insurance

  The Basic Principles of Insurance can be viewed as answers to four basic questions or issues, which if they were to be summarized in a single word each, could be called the questions of ‘Who,’ ‘How Much,’ ‘ When and Why,’ ‘What.’

  First, we are confronted by the question of ‘Who’? Who can take an insurance policy? Can ‘Anyone’ or only the Owner of a property purchase insurance? Or, can ‘Others’ who claim to be affected also do so? Who, then, is entitled to collect compensation for a loss insured by an Insurance Policy? The answer to this question is called the ‘Principle of Insurable Interest. ’

  Second, before us is the question of ‘How much’? For how much value should insurance be taken, and for what value would the compensation be paid. Is there a relationship between the value insured and the amount paid as compensation? The ‘Principle of Indemnity, ’ and its’ corollary, the ‘Principle of Subrogation and Contribution’ provide the answer.

  Third, the question arises whether any and every loss is payable under a policy? ‘Which’ losses are payable? In what circumstances’ is a loss not payable under the contract? Is short, why is a particular loss payable, and another not payable. The answer to this dilemma is provided by the ‘Principle of Proximate Cause.

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  The Tools & Techniques of Life Insurance Planning, 9th Edition

  • Stephan Leimberg, Keith A. Buck, Paul C Wetmore(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • The National Underwriter Company

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 16: LEGAL ASPECTS OF LIFE INSURANCE

  INTRODUCTION

  This chapter will provide an overview of some of the general principles governing life insurance as a legally enforceable contract and examine the terms and conditions under which life insurance is sold.1 This chapter is not meant to be a legal treatise and will only provide a basic survey of general life insurance principles. Each state’s law may (and often does) differ from another state’s law. And each courts’ interpretations of a general principle may vary (from slightly to radically) when compared with the conclusions of courts in another state. This chapter will not cover life insurance contract formation because the legal aspects of the contract will depend on the insurer’s policies and contract terminology in addition to state law.

  While reading this chapter, planners should consider the documentation necessary to create a “paper trail” of evidence as to what happened, who said and who did what, and when and how each step of the contractual process occurred. Careful record keeping can prove invaluable for tax purposes as well as in the event of a dispute among the parties.

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  Policyholder's Reasonable Expectations

  • Yong Qiang Han(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  2 Contract Law and Insurance Law: the Homogeneity This chapter addresses the underlying and occasionally raised argument that insurance (contract) law is sui generis or distinctive from (general) contract law. The argument results from confusing the features of the economic rationale of insurance transactions with the legal framework of contract law that governs them. The chapter counter-argues that whilst insurance is indeed distinctive from non-insurance transactions, the prototype of which is sales, in respect of their economic rationales, it is possible for insurance and non-insurance transactions to have a shared legal framework that governs both. To substantiate that counter-argument, this chapter revisits the common legal framework that governs insurance contract and non-insurance contracts in respect of the formation of contract, the shared legal nature of performance of contract, with focus on performance by insurers, and the common legal nature of remedies for breach of contract. It is found that in these respects Insurance Law still operates within the framework of general contract law. The chapter also shows that the principles of interpretation of contracts in an insurance context and in non-insurance transactions are essentially the same. In addition, it considers seeming differences between Insurance Law and contract law in respect of the duty of disclosure, and the meanings of ‘conditions’ and ‘warranties’

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  Maritime Law and Policy in China

  • Sharon Li, Colin Ingram(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge-Cavendish

    (Publisher)

  PART 6Insurance Law OF THE PRC 1995

  (Adopted at the 14th Session of the Standing Committee of the 8th National People’s Congress on 30 June 1995 and effective as of 1 October 1995)

  Chapter 1 General provisions

  Article 1

  This law is formulated for the purpose of regulating insurance activities, protecting the lawful rights and interests of parties in insurance activities, strengthening the supervision and control of the insurance industry and promoting the healthy development of the insurance business.

  Article 2

  For the purposes of this law, the term ‘insurance’ shall refer to a commercial insurance act whereby a proposer pays a premium to an insurer in accordance with a contract while the insurer assumes liability for payment of insurance monies for property losses as a result of the occurrence of an event specified in the contract, or when the insured dies, becomes injured or disabled, falls ill or reaches the age or time limit as specified in the contract.

  Article 3

  This law shall apply to parties engaged in insurance activities within the People’s Republic of China.

  Article 4

  Parties engaged in insurance activities must abide by the laws and administrative regulations and adhere to the principles of voluntariness, honesty and trustworthiness.

  Article 5

  Entities engaged in commercial insurance business must be insurance companies established in accordance with this law. No other organisation or individual may engage in commercial insurance business.

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