| The word insurable interest is from English, having a history of two hundred years since it appeared in the eighteenth century, which has formed a complete theory and is an important content in insurance law. The insurance legal system in our country is at developing stage, being far from having a thorough study on insurable interest, there exist a lot of problems on legislation and practice. Three parts of this paper are given to make a careful study on insurable interest. The first part is survey of the insurable interest concept, whose definition lays a solid foundation for insurable interest. By studying the historical development on insurable interest both in common law and civil law, the author questions the concept used in Insurance law of China on the following three aspects :subject, object and content, and maintains that insurable interest subject in property insurance should be the insured, subject in life insurance should be the beneficiary; insurable interest object is insured target:the property or person's lifetime and body; insurable interest content is the lawful economic interest. The insurable interest concept is the lawful economic interest of the insured or the beneficiary to the insured target, which is different from the one used in Insurance Law of China. The author proposes to revise the twelfth clause in Insurance Law of China, which is related to insurable interest. The second part is the scope insurable interest applies to, there are some scholars in common law advocating to annul insurable interest in life insurance, which has great influence on insurable interest. Making a careful study on the applying of insurable interest both in common law and civil law, I recommend there should be insurable interest in life insurance, opposing the viewpoint of annulling insurable interest in life insurance, because the purpose of adopting insurable interest in life insurance is to avoid the happening of moral hazard. It is improper in theory and dangerous in practice to annul insurable interest in life insurance. Insurable interest in property insurance should adapt to the development of market economy, it will play a positive role to determine the stockownership's insurable interest, creditor's insurable interest and mortgage's insurable interest for the developing of insurance business and prospering of market economy in our country. The third part is about a study on the prescription and alteration of insurable interest, which is also an important problem on insurable interest. The prescription in property insurance should exist when the insurance incident occurs, whether the insured has the insurable interest or not in contract, it has no influence on the formation of the contract. However prescription in the life insurance is different from its in property insurance, it should exist not only at the time of contract formation, but also during the contract continuation, the insurable interest is the forming and valid requisite in life insurance, because the insured target is person's life and body, this specific characteristic is in need of insurable interest to avoid the moral hazard both at the time of contract formation and during the contract continuation. The alteration of the insurable valid requisite includes its shifting and extinction, shifting refers to the change of the insured in property insurance, the change of the beneficiary in life insurance, it will alter the state and risk of the insured target, and then change the validity of the contract, so no shifting is the principle, besides the stipulation. The author proposes that when the insured or the beneficiary is changed, there will be a modified application added to the insurance contract. |
