8 Summary
This article investigates the influence of war on the development of Norwegian and Nordic marine insurance, in light of the lecture given by Sir Richard Aikens on “Wars and Laws: how war has influenced the development of the law of marine insurance”. Sir Richard Aikens describes war situations that lead to legal problems which challenge the existing regulation and are resolved through litigation. The result of the litigation will then either be decisive for the clause that was considered or may result in new clauses.
The Norwegian/Nordic development is different, since the marine insurance regulation is a result of a systematic and comprehensive approach to regulation that is more similar to legislation. However, it is interesting to note that this approach appears to be triggered by wars and the weapons of war; the Crimean War and the North American war and the influence of these wars on the expanding Norwegian fleet, in particular the invention of the torpedo. These risks raised the need for common regulation and common calculation of risk. It is quite uncertain whether the Plan would have been initiated and developed without the existence of these war factors.
The concepts described in Sir Richard Aikens’ lecture are also relevant for Norwegian/Nordic marine insurance, but the issues of insurable interest and duty of disclosure appear not to be influenced by war. On the other hand, the organization of marine risk and war risk respectively, and the concept of war risk, are both naturally influenced by war, in particular World Wars I and II. In modern times, the distinction between war risk and marine risk, as well as war risk cover, are particularly influenced by political unrest, rather more than by actual war.
The general concept that is most influenced by war is the concept of causation, where litigation during World War I established the dominant cause rule as the main rule for causation in Norwegian insurance law, but with litigation during World War II then resulting in a much more nuanced and flexible system for marine insurance.