| The enactment of the Insurance Act 2015 (the Act) marked the beginning of a new era for insurance law in the United Kingdom. More specifically, the Act improved the regime for the obligation of good faith by transitioning to the interpretive principle of good faith from traditional rules of good faith. The reform appears to converge with the present mechanism of the Chinese Insurance Law and Chinese Maritime Law of “the principle of good faith + specific rules of obligations.” However, upon further analysis, the standard of good faith for insurance contracts under English laws is higher than that of general contracts, and even higher than insurance contracts under civil law system, as well as Chinese insurance laws. The result arises not from the legal interpretation and effect of the word “utmost” in the obligation of utmost good faith under English laws, but derived from the theory that insurance contracts are “contracts of good faith” to the mutual benefit of each other, and on its own initiatives, disclose the important information in respect of the subject-matter insured. This specific duty of disclosure of the Act is equivalent to the standard of the duty of disclosure under the Maritime Law of China. In judicial practice, Chinese courts are not very strict on whether the insured has fulfilled the obligations of disclosure, and there is also no procedure in underwriting practice requiring the insured to disclose unlimited information on their own initiative. The “unlimited disclosure” as the minimum obligation provided in Chinese Maritime Law shall be retained to perform the function of safety valve, and appropriate supplement to the matters which the insured need not to disclose shall be made in the revision of Chinese Maritime Law. |
京公网安备11010102006664号 京ICP备2023015853号