The Research Of The Law Applicable To Marine Insurance Contracts

With the continuous development of international trade and the marine shipping industry,more and more disputes that are related to marine insurance contracts occur. Meanwhile, as animportant adjustment object in maritime laws in various nations, marine insurance contractsinevitably encounter issues of conflict of laws. The Law Applicable to Foreign-related CivilRelationship of The People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as The Law Applicableto Foreign-related Civil Relationship) has been officially implemented in April,2011, yetcurrently the legal application in China’s marine insurance contracts is not included therein.The clarification of the legal application in China’s marine insurance contracts is significantfor the adjustment of the relationships among international maritime laws and for thepromotion of international cooperation in maritime areas. In addition, bearing a long history,the marine insurance has not only its special legal characteristics, but also its own uniquelegal system. Regulations on legal application in marine insurance contracts are essential to amature legal system of maritime conflict laws, and meanwhile it promotes the resolution ofinternational maritime disputes and the development of China’s shipping and internationaleconomy and trade, and is also significant to advance the unification of international privatelaws.In this paper, by adoption of research methods including the literature-researchingmethod and the comparison method, researches on marine insurance contracts’ concept,classification, historical development and its problem of legal application are conducted, andsome legislative suggestions are presented. Specifically, this paper is composed of seven partsas follows:In the first part, the definitions, classifications and characteristics of marine insuranceand marine insurance contracts are discussed, to clarify specific research objects and expoundthe realistic significance of the study on the issue.The second part consists of the analysis of the conflict of laws of marine insurancecontracts. The substantive laws of marine insurance contracts in the continental law systemand in the common law system are compared, and some characteristics of China’s substantivelegislation in marine insurance contracts are summarized.In the third part, foreign-affair identification that is applicable to the law of marine insurance contracts is analyzed, and common provisions in domestic and foreign laws ofmarine insurance contracts are clarified.In the fourth part, the method of comparative study is adopted to conduct acomprehensive and comparative study of similarities and differences in the applications of thelaw of the marine insurance contract in the EU, the United States of America, Canada andother countries and regions, so as to provide experience reference for legislation of China’slaw of marine insurance contracts.In the fifth part of the paper, dilemmas in the application of China’s Law Applicable toForeign-related Civil Relationship in the marine insurance contracts are discussed. Theanalysis is mainly from three aspects including the limited applicable scope, inflexibleutilization and incomplete complements of China’s law of marine insurance contracts.In the sixth part, targeting the problems existed in China’s marine insurance contracts,that how to design the application of China’s law of marine insurance contracts is elaborated,and specific legislative proposals are presented for future reference, in an attempt to providean effective resolving mechanism for the application of the law of marine insurance contracts.