1 Introduction
This article is a commentary from a Nordic perspective on Sir Richard Aikens’ lecture entitled “Wars and Laws: how war has influenced the development of the law of marine insurance”.(1) The article is based on a lecture given at a conference on marine insurance organized by Wikborg Rein and the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, 13 March 2024.
Sir Richard Aikens addresses several topics fundamental to marine insurance in his lecture:
“First, the doctrine that a contract of marine insurance is one of “utmost good faith”; secondly, the requirement that a person who insures ship or cargo (or freight) must have an “insurable interest” in the thing insured; thirdly, the development of the concept of a “constructive total loss” of an insured thing – be it ship, cargo or freight; fourthly, the division of insurance risks into what have become “marine risks” and “war risks”; and, lastly, the development of the doctrine of “causation” in marine insurance.”
All of these topics are also highly relevant to Norwegian and Nordic marine insurance, and indeed for land based insurance as well. However, they are not all as closely connected to wars as has been describeded by Sir Richard Aikens. The first point to be made here is that Norwegian and Nordic marine insurance has developed along different lines from those moulding English marine insurance. The English law of marine insurance developed from the end of the 15th century onwards, mainly through court cases, and many of the cases presented by Sir Richard Aikens are from 15th to 18th centuries. The history of both Norwegian, and today Nordic, marine insurance is more recent, developed mainly through an agreed document called the Norwegian, and later the Nordic, Marine Insurance Plan. As this difference in development explains the difference in origin of several concepts, I will first outline how the marine insurance regulation has developed first in Norway, and later in the Nordic countries.
Thereafter, I will look more closely into the concepts that have been presented to us. To simplify the presentation, I will concentrate on hull insurance, although the concepts are equally relevant for freight – today mainly insured through loss of hire insurance – and also cargo insurance.