Insurance and the Law of Obligations

by Merkin, Rob; Steele, Jenny

• ISBN13: 9780199645749
• ISBN10: 0199645744
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-12-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Author Biography

Rob Merkin, Professor of Law, University of Exeter; Consultant, Norton Rose Fulbright,Jenny Steele, Professor of Law, York Law School, University of York

Rob Merkin is Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Exeter, Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, and a consultant to international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. He is the author of over 40 books on insurance, reinsurance, and arbitration, and lectures on insurance and reinsurance law at universities worldwide. He is co-editor of the Lloyd's Law Reports and the editor of Insurance Law Monthly, the Journal of Business Law, and the British Insurance Law Association Journal. From 2006 to 2010, Rob was a co-editor of Legal Studies. Rob was President of the British Insurance Law Association 2010-2012 and has been Vice-President of the International Association of Insurance Law since 2010. In 2010 he was awarded a prize by the Australian Insurance Law Association for his contribution to the development of insurance law in Australia, and in 2012 he was awarded the Hotung Fellowship by the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, for work on earthquake insurance.

Jenny Steele is a Professor of Law at York Law School, University of York. She is the author of Tort Law: Text, Cases, and Materials (OUP, 2nd ed. 2010); and Risks and Legal Theory (Hart, 2004), and is a contributing editor to Clerk and Lindsell on Torts (from the 20th edition). She edited Law in Environmental Decision-Making (OUP, 1995), with Tim Jewell, and is editor, with Willem van Boom, of a collection of essays entitled Mass Justice: Challenges of Representation and Distribution (Edward Elgar, 2011) and, with TT Arvind, of Tort Law and the Legislature: Common Law, Statute, and the Dynamics of Legal Change (Hart, 2012). She is the holder of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, Liability, Insurance and Society.

Table of Contents

Part I Essentials
Chapter 1 Introduction: Insurance in the Law of Obligations
1.1 Our Aim
1.2 Insurance and Risk
1.3 Challenges
1.4 Obligations
1.5 Structure

Chapter 2 Characterising Insurance
2.1 Introduction: Actuarial or Relational?
2.2 In Search of the Nature of Insurance
2.3 Insurance and Responsibility
2.4 Uncertainty and Speculation
2.5 Conclusions

Chapter 3 Insurance Contracts and Insurance Market
3.1 Introduction
3.2 When is a Contract One of Insurance?
3.3 Principle of Insurance Contract Law: An Introduction
3.4 The Development of Risks and the Market for Insurance
3.5 Liability Insurance and Liability
3.6 Does Liability Insurance Influence Liability?
3.7 Conclusions

Chapter 4 Regulatory Dimensions
4.1 Introduction and Significance
4.2 Regulating the Insurance Activity
4.3 Protecting Policyholders: the Public Law Approach
4.4 Conclusions

Part 2 Operation

Chapter 5 Subrogation
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Issues Illustrated
5.3 The Basis of Insurer Subrogation
5.4 Operation and Limits
5.5 Exclusion of Life and Personal Injury Policies
5.6 Reflections on Risk Allocation and Loss Distribution
5.7 Conclusions

Chapter 6 Loss-Spreading
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Some Misconceptions About Loss-Spreading
6.3 Contribution Between Insurers
6.4 Reinsurance
6.5 Riot Damages: Market or Community Loss-Bearing?
6.6 Market and State

Chapter 7 Allocation of Risk in Voluntary Arrangements
7.1 Introduction: Contracting and Insurance
7.2 Common Concerns
7.3 Insuring Against the Risk of Insolvency
7.4 Risk Allocation and Insurance in Contracts
7.5 Risk Allocation and Defective Performance
7.6 Construction Contracts: a Case Study
7.7 Conclusions
Chapter 8 Allocation of Risk and Tort Law
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Overview: Tort Reasoning and Risk Allocation
8.3 Contractual Matrix Cases: Tort and Party Risk Structure
8.4 Advice
8.5 Public Authorities and Risk Allocation
8.6 Duties to Employees
8.7 Conclusions: Duties, Remedies and Risks

Chapter 9 Compulsory Liability Insurance
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Significance and Extent
9.3 Compulsory Insurance for Motor Vehicles
9.4 Compulsory Employers' Liability Insurance
9.5 Conclusions

Part 3 Applications
Chapter 10 Vicarious Liability
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Nature and Boundaries
10.3 Risk Allocation and Loss-Spreading
10.4 Loss-Spreading and Insurance in Vicarious Liability
10.5 Vicarious Liability and Contractual Structure
10.6 Insurance and Vicarious Liability: Conclusions
Chapter 11 Insurance and Illegal Conduct
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Principles Governing Illegality
11.3 Claims Against Policyholders
11.4 Claims Against Insurers
11.5 Conclusions
Chapter 12 The Asbestos Litigation
12.1 The Issues
12.2 Establishing Liability in Tort
12.3 Insurance Coverage
12.4 Claims Against and Between Insurers
12.5 Conclusions

Chapter 13 Insurance in Litigation
13.1 Insurance and the Shaping of Litigation
13.2 Funding Litigation
13.3 Defending Litigation by Liability Insurance
13.4 Liability Insurance as a Means of Enforcing Judgments
13.5 Concluding Thoughts