A Study On The Reform Of Warranty Under English Insurance Law And Its Enlightenment To Chinese Legislation

Warranties in marine insurance law have been firstly regulated in Marine Insurance Act 1906(hereinafter referred to as “MIA 1906”), which codified the existing law in the 18 th and 19 th centuries without making any alteration. With the rapid development of society and technology, MIA 1906, which roots in the outdated economic and cultural background hundreds of years ago, has already faced many difficulties in adapting to the latest development, even with some regulations unsuitable for current situations. Therefore, through deliberate reviews and discussions for many years, the Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission enacted the Insurance Act 2015(hereinafter referred to as “IA 2015”) in February 2015, which will come into effect in August 2016. Based on the general legal frame of warranty in MIA 1906, IA 2015 revises several regulations which have already been criticized for decades, in order to moderate the protection for the assurer and balance the losses or liabilities between the two parties.Warranty regime in China has been regulated in Maritime Code of the People’s Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as “Maritime Law”) and Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues about the Trial of Cases Concerning Marine Insurance Disputes(hereinafter referred to as “Judicial Interpretation”) adopted in November 2006. Both Maritime Law and Chinese warranty has close relationship with MIA 1906 because the legislation of Maritime Law largely referred to MIA 1906. But warranty in China was revised from that of MIA 1906 so as to better adapt to Chinese social and cultural background. Recently, Maritime Law faces many problems in maritime and trail activities. Thus, many scholars recommend revising Maritime Law and warranty, which can gain some reference from legal reform of warranty in insurance law in the UK.This thesis contains four parts. The first part discusses the conception of warranty regime in Chinese and English legal systems, and distinguishes it from other similar legal concepts, which can help to better understand the theme of the thesis. Also, this part describes the historical development of the warranty regime in marine insurance for the purpose of explaining the origin and foundation of this regime. The second part points out the defects in MIA 1906 and the attitude of UK’s judicial system towards warranty regime. The third part carefully analyzed the new regulations in IA 2015, and tries to find out what new problems may appear in the practice after IA 2015 comes into effect. The fourth part considers the features of China’s warranty regime based on the related regulations, and also seeks to compare the differences of warranty regime between China and the UK. By reviewing the related cases, this part also analyzes the attitude of Chinese courts towards warranties in the disputing cases. Finally, with the above in mind, I seek to find out the improvable parts of warranty regime in China’s marine insurance and tentatively line out a scheme for improvement.