2 The Nordic Marine Insurance Plan 2013
The Nordic Marine Insurance Plan 2013 (NP) is an agreed insurance contract covering i.a. hull insurance, hull interest insurance and loss of hire insurance for vessels. It contains both insurance against marine risk, as well as insurance against war risk. The NP is used in all the Nordic countries and contains a comprehensive regulation which also provides provisions for questions ordinarily regulated under national insurance legislation.(1) The main textbooks on the NP are Sjur Brækhus and Alex. Rein, Håndbok i Kaskoforsikring (Oslo, Sjørettsfondet, 1993) and Trine-Lise Wilhelmsen and Hans Jacob Bull, Handbook on Hull Insurance (2nd edn, Gyldendal 2017)
The NP is based on the Norwegian Marine Insurance Plan 1996 Version 2010 (NMIP 2010),(2) The Nordic Association of Marine Insurers (Cefor), ‘The Norwegian Marine Insurance Plan of 1996, Version 2010’ <http://nordicplan.org/Archive/The-Norwegian- Plan-2010/> (accessed 21 October 2021). but some of the clauses are adjusted to conform to national background law in the other Nordic countries. Most of the clauses, however, including thereunder the clauses relevant for this article, are identical or similar to the previous clauses. Previous practice on these clauses is therefore still relevant.
As the NP is based on the NMIP 2010, it is necessary to outline the historical development of the NMIP, in order to understand the relationship between the NMIP and the NP and the different versions of the NP.
The first NMIP was published in 1871, and was later followed by several more Plans,(3) The Plans of 1881, 1894, 1907, 1930 and 1964. the most recent being the 1996 Plan. The NMIP 1996 was published in several versions, the most recent in 2010.(4) Version 1997, Version 1999, Version 2000, Version 2002, Version 2003, Version 2007 and Version 2010. At this time, the Nordic Association of Marine Insurers (Cefor), which is responsible for the maintenance and publishing of standard marine insurance conditions in the Nordic market, decided that, instead of operating with a separate set of standard conditions in each of the Nordic countries, the maintenance effort should be concentrated on one common set of conditions. Cefor chose the Norwegian Marine Insurance Plan 1996 Version 2010 as the basis for a set of unified Nordic conditions. An agreement was entered into between Cefor and the Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish ship-owner associations on 3 November 2010 to construct the Nordic Marine Insurance Plan of 2013, which came into force in January 2013. The agreement established the Standing Revision Committee to be responsible for amending the NP every third or fourth year. The NP was amended in 2016 and again in 2019.(5) Wilhelmsen and Bull (n 4) 26.Team Tango was insured under the 2016 Version. The cover for interventions by foreign states was however, amended in the 2019 Version i.a. to clarify the previous clauses, and the arbitration case also refers to the Commentary to this version. Both versions will therefore be addressed in this article.
The NP is supplemented by extensive and published commentaries (the Commentary). Until 2007 the Commentary was published both in hard copy and on the website. From 2007 onward the Commentary has only been published on Cefor’s website.(6) Wilhelmsen and Bull (n 4) 27. The references to the 2019 Commentary in this article are to the pdf-download placed on this website for the 2019 Version.(7) The Nordic Association of Marine Insurers (Cefor), ‘Commentary’ <http://www. nordicplan.org/Commentary/> (accessed 21 October 2021). The references to the 2016 Commentary are also to the version on the website.
The starting point for interpretation of the NP is of course the wording of the clauses. However, the Commentary is a relevant and highly significant legal source for the interpretation, cf. the following remark in the Commentary:
‘The Plan does not contain any explicit reference to the Commentary and its significance as a basis for resolving disputes. … Nevertheless the Commentary shall still carry more weight as a legal source than is normally the case with the Traveau Preparatoire of statutes. The Commentary as a whole has been thoroughly discussed and approved by the Nordic Revision Committee, and it must therefore be regarded as an integral component of the standard contract which the Plan constitutes.’(8) Commentary (2019) 25.
The opinion of the Plan Committee that the Commentary is a significant factor for the interpretation of the Plan has been accepted both by the Supreme Court(9) ND 1956.323 NSC Pan; ND 1956.318 NSC Bandeirante; ND 1969.49 NSC Grethe Solheim; ND 1998.216 NSC Ocean Blessing. and also in arbitration cases.(10) ND 2000.442 NA Sitakathrine. It should also be noted that arbitration awards are more relevant as a legal argument for interpretation in marine insurance than is the case in many other legal disciplines.(11) Trine-Lise Wilhelmsen, ‘Choice of Forum in the Nordic Marine Insurance Plan – Regulation and Practice’ (2019) MarIus 515, 71-95. The reason for this is that many marine insurance conflicts are solved by arbitration, and that those arbitration awards are often published. Cases concerning matters of principle will then be discussed by the Standing Revision Committee, which will either agree upon the award and include it as a legal source in the Commentary, or instead disagree with it and make the necessary changes to the text or commentary to depart from it.(12) ibid 84-92.