Module description
AVAILABLE TO LAW STUDENTS ONLY
English insurance law, with its history that goes back to the seventeenth century, has influenced a number of different legal systems. The London insurance market is doubtless one of the biggest insurance markets and Lloyd’s syndicates insure risks both at home and abroad. I would like to introduce a course for the undergraduate students of the Law School where I put emphasis on the insurance contract law and its impact in the lives of individuals and businesses. Since this is going to be a course that focuses on contractual relationships in the context of insurance – rather than regulation of insurance companies- the module will start with teaching how to form an insurance contract. This procedure will cover the special procedure followed at Lloyd’s for large risks (there are various ways of insuring domestic and overseas risks) as well as the procedure that is available for consumers – for instance making insurance contracts through price comparison websites. The module structure will then move to the general principles applicable to insurance contracts. The most important of those are the duty of fair presentation of the risk and the interpretation of insurance contract terms, both have been subject to the law reform by the Insurance Act 2015. The role of insurance brokers, the consequences of the non-payment of the premium, the insurers’ subrogation rights are the other general principles to be taught. Aggregation clauses, clauses that determine the amount recoverable under an insurance contract, are very important and most disputes focus on their interpretation. Fraudulent claims is the next topic that the course will look into not only because of the statutory law reform in this area but also the issues that have been left unscathed by the Insurance Act 2015. After covering in depth the general principles of insurance law in Semester 1, the course will focus on different types of insurance in Semester 2. It is important for the students to understand why different types of standard clauses are used in the insurance market to insure different types of risk. It is not possible to cover every single different form of insurance available in the insurance market. Hence, the focus will be on the major types such as liability insurance (eg motor vehicle insurance, professional indemnity insurance), property insurance, marine insurance and reinsurance. At the end of the course the students will be able to understand and interpret the insurance matters arising for instance, after recent major floods in the UK, the grounding of the Costa Concordia (off the coast of Isola del Giglio in Italy in 2012), the blowout in the Deepwater Horizon (Gulf of Mexico, 2010), collapsing of the World Trade Centre in 2001 as well as the issues came before the English courts after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1999.
Educational aims:
To gain an in-depth knowledge on the general principles applicable in insurance contracts;
To understand and assess the fundamental principles on the interpretation of insurance contract terms;
To gain an in depth understanding of the fundamental principles and apply the general principles in different specialised types of insurance;
To understand the main issues that affect the assessment of an insurance claim;
To be able to interpret the aggregation clauses in insurance and reinsurance contracts;
To acquire a substantial knowledge of different types of insurance – consumer, marine, property, liability, reinsurance and to understand their differences in nature;
Learning outcomes:
• Have a systematic understanding of the knowledge base and its inter-relationship with other fields of study and will demonstrate current understanding of some specialist areas in depth.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a wide range of legal concepts, values, principles and rules of English law and able to explain the relationships between them in a number of particular areas
• Demonstrate a sound and generally accurate knowledge and understanding of the law and its context in relation to most areas of law which have been studied.
• Be able to apply knowledge to complex situations, recognise potential alternative conclusions for particular situations and provide supporting reasons for them.
• Learn to address these questions by synthesising materials from different academic disciplines and then applying their analysis to ongoing policy debates.
• Work with ideas at a level of abstraction, arguing from competing perspectives and identify the possibility of new concepts within existing knowledge frameworks and approaches.
• In areas of law which they have not previously studied, be able to use a full range of legal sources to identify the principal controversial issues in a topic.
Assessment details
Written examination/s
3-hours closed book examination (100%)
Teaching pattern
1 x 2-hour seminar per week