Research On The Principle Of Estoppel In The Insurance Law

Estoppel originated in Common Law and got great development in recent years. It is now a mature system in Common Law and shine in the field of insurance law. The countries of Civil Law do not have such a rich system of rules, there only a few provisions embodied the principle of Estoppel. The provisions, which are not sufficiently comprehensive, brought a lot of trouble and distress to the court. The third and sixth paragraph of article sixteenth of the insurance law of China revised in 2009 introduced the principle of Estoppel. It has a positive effect on the maintenance and the stability of the insurance contract. And it will greatly improve the protection degree of policyholders, the insured and the beneficiary’s rights. But we should also see, the introduction of the principles is not so perfect. So we should study on the principle of Estoppel and improve the laws and regulations of our country in order to play its role in the insurance disputes and litigation. The paper attempts to set out a principle of Estoppel and to consider the principle as they apply to insurance law. The paper falls into four parts.In part one, we firstly overview the principle of estoppel in the area of contract law, then we make sure the exact meaning of the principle in insurance law. In this part, we analyze the elements of the Estoppel. Further we put forward a new point of view that Waiver is a situation of one elements of Estoppel——the inappropriate expression of intention.In part two, we analyze the theory basis of the system of estoppel. It is produced in order to make up for the consideration theory. Besides, the utmost good faith and the reasonable expectations should also be the fundamental of Estoppel. The principle realizes people’s pursuit of fairness and justice and truly implements and perfects the good faith in insurance law.In part three, the paper makes analysis of the application and restriction of the principle of estoppel in insurance law. We classified the scope of application, the applicable conditions and the limitations of the principle. On the aspect of limitation of Estoppel, in addition to the public interest and the oral evidence rule, the paper also discussed the principle in insurance litigation. In the past, the principle of which is "just not shield and spear", it cannot produce independent right of appeal. But with the decline of the theory of consideration, it developed quickly in the second restatement of the contract law in America——it can be used as a cause of action.The last part is about the estoppel in our insurance law. This chapter mainly introduces and criticizes the content of the third and sixth paragraph of Article Sixteenth in our Insurance Law. In the meanwhile, we compare the similar legal system in Civil Law, which makes the introduction of this system be more considerable. At last, we make some suggestions for our insurance law in order to fully protect the interests of both insurer and policyholder and try to further perfect the insurance law of our country.