The Study Of The Principle Of Marine Insurable Interest

The principle of marine insurable interest is the core content of the marine insurance that is dominating the international marine insurance. It is an important principle in the system of marine insurance that, without insurable interest, one can not be compensated. According to some survey, the issue of insurable interest was on the first place among all the focus of controversy of disputable cases in the marine cargo insurance contract and ranked the fifth among all the controversial focus of disputable cases in the ship insurance contract. China’s insurance law has further improved the insurable interest principle and maritime law is planning to provide the provision of this principle in the chapter of marine insurance. During this period, the British 《Insurance Contract Law:Post Contract Duties and Other Issues》 and the Australian 《Review of the Marine Insurance Act1909Report No91》 are discussing whether to repeal the principle. In view of this, the author believe that, in order to save our precious legal resources and to avoid the waste of human and material resources, China should carefully consider whether there is a need to continue to keep an insurable interest in the marine insurance.The reasons why the UK wants to retain insurable interest principle are as follows:first, it was the hallmark of insurance; second, it reinforced the market discipline; third, it acted as a barrier against invalid claims. The reasons why the UK wants to repeal insurable interest principle are as follows:first, the law is a bewildering mixture of common law and statute; second, the definition of insurable interest is uncertain; third, the doctrine differs depending on the type of insurance; lastly, in practice, many policies are written which use a more expansive definition of insurable interest than the case law suggests what is permissible. As for Australia, The reasons why it wants to retain insurable interest principle are as follows:first, the requirement for an insurable interest is dictated by the special nature of marine cargo insurance; second, it can make contributions to avoid the increased premiums falling as a burden on all policy holders; third, lack of the requirement for an insurable interest may undermine the fundamental nature of international sale contracts; lastly, under FOB and CFR terms it is not the insurable interest that leads to the buyer not available to claim against the insurer. The reasons why it wants to repeal insurable interest principle are as follows:first, the relevant parties lack of legal understanding about this principle; second, international competitiveness may be enhanced if Australian repeal this principle; third, insurable interest will lead to conflict with the terms of the " warehouse to warehouse ".In this paper, the use of research methods includes literature analysis and case study method. Through literature analysis method, this thesis mainly explores the concept of insurable interest principle, the legal value contained in this principle, the historical evolution of the UK’s maritime law about the principle and the discussion of the UK and Australia,on behalf of the Anglo-American legal systems, about whether to continue to retain this principle or not. By using case study method, two classic cases have been used to deepen the understanding of these two criteria being used to define the insurable interest.The main problem to be solved in this thesis is to explore whether the principle of marine insurable interest should remain. The author’s main work is to study the UK and Australia’s point of view about retaining and repealing of the principle. And by the appropriate analysis, to provide a more complete and systematic reference to promote the advancement of the principle of China’s marine insurable interest.