Module overview
Insurance underpins much of economic activity, also has a significant social function. In this module, we will consider both the conceptual idea of channelling and allocating risks by insurance and technical commercial law issues within insurance contract law. The module therefore builds on general contract law concepts and principles, and provides a range of interesting cases of the involvement of insurance in our daily and social life, such as the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA)’s coronavirus-related business interruption insurance test case.
Insurance law has ancient roots- many of the principles pre-date those in general contract law- but it has survived largely unchanged for centuries. This is likely to change considerably in the near future as the Law Commission continues its extensive project to reform insurance contract law and as insurance law has to adapt to modern circumstances. We will look into the traditional rules of insurance and update our knowledge and vision on insurance law with the Law Commission project of Insurance Contract Law.