Research On Good Faith Principle Of Insurance Contracts

Good faith principle is an important legal principle that regulates the civil legal relationships and behaviors of parties to contract under the circumstances of market economy. Good faith principle of insurance contracts is the basic guiding principle of insurance contracts and plays a vital and non-replaceable role in maintaining order of insurance activities, safeguarding legitimate interests of parties and balancing the interests of parties and society. This article carries out in-depth study in good faith principle of insurance contracts from different perspectives such as: its development and evolvement, basic features, structure and design. Comparison is given between good faith principle of insurance contracts and other civil legal principles as well as principles of insurance contracts. It is concluded the basic guiding role played by good faith principle of insurance contracts is decided by the fundamental features of insurance contracts and good faith principle of insurance contracts has important values and unique functions to insurance contracts and effects of such role is not partial but overall. On the basis of these conclusions, this articleput forward the concept of good faith principle system of insurance contracts and analyzes it from the following three perspectives: core principle, application principle and concrete regulations. Finally, this article compares the design of good faith principle of insurance contracts in China with major countries of both civil law family and common law family and points out the defects of China's insurance legislation and provides the detailed suggestions for improving the design of China's good faith principle of insurance contracts.