영국해상보험법의 최근 개정동향 및 시사점 - 2015년 영국 Insurance Act를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The Marine Insurance Act 1906 (MIA 1906) has been a successful piece of legislation, having rarely been amended and having established, or served as an influence in the development of, the basis ofmarine insurance legislation in several countries. However, it has been recognised that some parts of theMIA 1906 have begun to showtheir antiquated nature, especiallywhere established principleswhichwere once thought to reflect undoubted propositions of laware now being openly criticised. Since 2006, the Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission (the ‘Law Commissions’) have been engaged in amajor reviewof insurance contract law, finally leading tothe InsuranceAct 2015. The InsuranceAct 2015 receivedRoyal Assent on 12 February 2015, and was based primarily on the joint recommendations of the Law Commissions. The 2015 Act made substantial changes to several main areas of marine insurance law & practice: (i) the replacement of the pre-contractual duty of disclosurewitha duty tomake a “fair presentation of the risk”; (ii) the abolition of the “insurancewarranty” under the Marine Insurance Act 1906, s.33, and provision of a new default remedy of suspension of liability until the breach is cured; (iii) partial codification of the fraudulent claims rule in insurance contract law, etc. The Act did not provide for any newstatutory duty for insurers to investigate or pay claims in a timely fashion, although this may be revisited in the next Parliament.Moreover, the LawCommissions have reopenedtheir consideration of the doctrine of insurable interest. The 2015Actmay not then signal the end of the legislative programme in this area.