Study On The Insurer Explanation Obligation System Of China

Nowadays, with the progress of science and technology and the development of social economy, people’s living standards greatly improved. However, while people enjoy the convenience of high-tech, they are also facing the unprecedented risks. Therefore, the insurance concept are being gradually accepted by common people and the insurance activities have become increasingly frequent, thus resulting in the insurance contract dispute cases continuing to rise. It is safe to say that how the insurance industry of a country develops has become an indicator for its social and economic development. In modern society, because the insurance activity is highly professional, technical and fast, the insurer generally draw up insurance contract in a certain format in advance, and then policyholders have the right to accept or reject the contract, but they can never persuade the insurer into changing the clause of the contract. Consumption and format become two major characteristics of insurance contracts. Due to the two characteristics, policyholders are weak groups in terms of information when they conclude contract with insurers. In order to enable the two parties in an insurance contract to achieve an equal status, insurance law stipulates the insurer’s obligation of explaining the terms of the contract, but because our country’s insurance industry just started, regulations are not complete, many problems still exist in the current insurer explanation obligation system, many basic issues are comparatively vague, and even no provision is made on this issue by the law, thus the evil competition in insurance market being heard from time to time. In view of this, by elaborating the basic concept and the general theories of insurer explanation obligation system, the author intends to analyze the development and characteristics of domestic and foreign insurers obligation system, then further probe into the constitution and defects of China’s insurer explanation obligation system and finally put forward the suggestions to perfect the insurer explanation obligation system.Besides introduction and conclusion, this thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter is an introduction to the concept, nature and theoretical base of insurer explanation obligation system. It points out that insurer explanation obligation is not contractual obligation after the insurance contract is signed but legal obligations regulated directly by law. The theoretical base includes utmost good faith, asymmetric information theory and contractual justice theory.The second chapter analyzes the development and characteristics of domestic and foreign insurers obligation systems. Even though China’s insurer’s explanation obligation system just started, yet it actively borrows ideas from foreign advanced legislation and sets legislations about the insurer’s explanation obligation."The doctrine of reasonable expectation" established by countries of Anglo-American law system and "insurance consumption concept" valued by civil law countries are worth learning by us.The third chapter elaborates the basic contents of insurer explanation obligation and the legal consequences of violating obligations. The basic content includes the subject, scope, method and standard of insurer explanation obligation. By making a comparison between the informing obligation of policyholders and insurer’s explanation obligation, the author introduces the legal consequences that insurers should bear when they violate the explanation obligation.The fourth chapter is the last part. In this part, the author first analyzes the detects of China’s insurer’s explanation obligation system, and then from the perspective of rationality and operability the author puts forward a proposal that China should introduce "calm observation period system","insurance consumption concept" from foreign countries and give the policyholders rights of altering or cancelling contracts. Finally, the author raises some suggestions on how to improve subject, scope, method and standard of China’s insurer’s explanation obligation.