On The Insurance Interests

Insurance is called the most consummate system created by human beings to make up all kinds of losses in human society. With China's entering WTO, the insurance market of China will be opening more widely and the insurance industry will be more prospering. With insurance consciousness increasing, more and more people have accepted insurance. As a result, much more insurance disputes related to insurable interest appear. The reason is that on one hand, insurable interest determines the force of insurance contract, on the other hand, it is the criterion in the determination of insurance value, repeated insurance, super-value insurance and causes of damage in the insurance business and the practice of insurance judicature. The importance of insurable interest determines its important position in the study of insurance law. This thesis is just a study in this field.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, this thesis makes a relatively systematic study of insurable interest from three parts.The first part is about the general issues of insurable interest. Insurable interest originated from marine insurance and was first established in the form of law by the Marine Insurance Act 1746 of England. Later, in the Life Assurance Act 1774 of England, the regulations of insurable interest were applied to the field of personal insurance. The meaning of insurable interest varies in cases and theories, up to now, there is no identical conclusion about it. The legislative model of insurable interest consists of generalization doctrine and enumeration doctrine. Generally speaking, the countries and regions of Anglo-American genealogy of law apply the regulations of insurable interest to the field of property insurance as well as the field of personal insurance. On the contrary, those of continental genealogy of law only apply the regulations of insurable interest to the field of property insurance. The important constructive conditions of insurable interest consist of three items, i.e. legality, economically and identifibility.According to different criterions, insurable interest can be divided into property insurable interest and personal insurable interest, or present interest, anticipated interest and liability interest. The regulations of property insurable interest may avoid gambling, prevent moral danger from happening and limit compensation degrees. The insurable interest belongs to the insured, and it is just at the time when the insured accidents happen.The second part is property insurable interest. This part identifies and analyzes the present interest, anticipated interest, liability interest and some special problems related to them. It also explains the calculation basis of insurance and points out that the liability interest includes legal liability interest and reinsurance liability interest. Moreover, this part analyzes the special legal problems in property insurance.The third part is the discussion about personal insurable interest. This part mainly introduces the different views of the two law systems about personal insurable interest. In the light of the differences, the author cannot make qualitative and quantitative analysis of personal insurable interest and admits that personal insurable interest cannot play the three functions of insurable interest. There is also some doubt about the attribution and validity in time of the personal insurable interest. Aiming at the deficiency about the theory of personal insurable interest, the author puts forward that it should be replaced by consentism in the continental genealogy of law, meanwhile, the author explains the meaning, content and function of consentism. Based on these problems, the author also illustrates the legal cases about consentism and puts forward some countermeasures.