Regulation and Litigation of Insurance

The Third Edition brings this casebook up to date on the most recent cases and developments in insurance law. Including but going beyond the basics of insurance contract, tort, remedies and commercial law regulation and litigation, this book highlights insurance law in action using the business as a proving ground for federal-state relations, for the powers of administrative agencies and corporate governance, and for new formulations of tort and statutory law. It traces the fortunes of the business from Lloyds coffee house and before to the Trade Towers and after. This book is ample for at least a three-hour course. It lends itself to a shorter one, and in either case, by variety, to selective emphasis. An instructor might choose to emphasize the popular lines of insurance, policy terms in general use, and advocacy in insurance disputes. Another might emphasize regulation of the insurance business, giving particular attention to tension between federal and state authorities. One might venture into various fields of social and economic science. The behavior of buyers and sellers of insurance has drawn increasing attention from economists, who find it sometimes a challenge to, and sometimes a vindication of, their theories. Moral hazard and risk aversion are among the counters both in those theories and in insurance law. In addition to selective emphasis, the instructor might use the book to challenge students with thought-provoking exercises and probing problems of fairness and efficiency, of fitting insurance law into the matrices of tort and contract law, and of applying appropriate sanctions to wrongdoing by insurers and insureds. The editors have included, along with full-dress opinions, shorter case reports, text exposition on some topics, and innovative exercises and problems. Notes are used for various purposes: stating broad themes, reporting trends and variant views, and posing questions for reflection and discussion. The book takes notice of ground-breaking litigation, up nearly to publication date, including catastrophes of this century, ?9/11 and the hurricane Katrina.