It is time that the law and the market should adopt sensible reforms in the law of insurance. The Law Commission should be encouraged once again to consider among other topics: (1) the doctrine of utmost good faith; (2) the test for non-disclosure and misrepresentation; (3) the remedies available to the insurer for non-disclosure and misrepresentation; (4) the doctrine of breach of warranty; (5) proposal forms; and (6) damages for late payment.

I need hardly say what a great honour it is to be invited to give this lecture to you this evening in honour of Pat Saxton. I regret that I did not know him personally. By all accounts he was a remarkable and much loved man. His insurance career began, I think, with the Caledonian Insurance Company. He later joined Willis Faber and broked French Marine Hull risks, in particular. He thus had experience on both sides of the insurance fence, both broking and underwriting. He joined the Chartered Insurance Institute as a Careers Advisory Officer and became its Director-General. He was a tireless and humorous organizer of the British Insurance Law Association and was also chairman of the BILA Charitable Trust meetings under whose auspices I am lecturing this evening. In 1974 he published Allured to Adventure, a book which explained to young people how alluring an adventure the insurance world could be. He had a strong religious faith and, I understand, compared service in the Merchant Navy with the service Jesus required of his disciples who were, after all, themselves fishermen.