A Study On The Legal Issues Concerning The Disclosure And Description Obligation Of The Parties To The Marine Insurance Contract

It was said by some scholars that “Insurance Contract Law was developeddifferently with General Contract Law from the beginning”, though Insurance Lawwas considered as the part of Civil Law. But most people think Insurance ContractLaw is really a special kind by comparing with the other Civil Laws. Especially,Marine Insurance Contract is a particular contract in Insurance Contract Law due toits special service for marine trade. The duty of disclosure by the party of marinecontract is worthy of study among a large number of legal issues, and many scholarsand professional person have discussed it with different view. The author will provideresearch and analysis of Marine Insurance Contract based on the marine insurance’sworking experience and related law, marine and insurance knowledge by herself.The whole dissertation is divided by three parts:Firstly, the main features of Insurance Contract and the differences betweenMarine Insurance Contract and other insurance contracts are generally introduced toreaders for the demonstration of relationship among Marine Insurance Contract,Maritime Law and Insurance Law, and then to discuss the duty of disclosure andexplanation by the parties of marine insurance contract. For easy understanding thecontent step by step, the beginning and development of the duty of disclosure andexplanation theory with examples will be shown in this chapter, and the related legalbasis such as subject, period of performance, contents and legal consequences ofviolating the duty etc. All these features and knowledge are the premise of discussionon Marine Insurance Contract issues.Secondly, some typical Marine Insurance Contract issues, discussions andsolutions based on features of Marine Insurance Contract will be mentioned fromactual cases. For example, the argument of whether the agent is subject of the duty ofdisclosure, the importance and relationship between steady insurer and keyinformation, and the scope of duty of disclosure. In these three issues, there has existed confused explanation, different understanding and application of dispute.Therefore, the personal consideration and advice will be provided to demonstratemain ideas.Finally, by the detailed discussion and analysis of above issues, some defects ofMarine Insurance Contract Legislation are found which is necessary to be improved.Author, furthermore, has raised personal advice of improvement with development ofmarine insurance.