The Law Commissions’ draft bill on consumer insurance

On 15 December 2009 the Law Commission produced the first fruits of the work on insurance contract law reform which began with the Scoping Paper in January 2006. The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Misrepresentations) Bill is accompanied by the joint Law Commissions’ Report No 319. The draft is discussed by Johanna Hjalmarsson of the University of Southampton.

Background

When embarking on the insurance contract law reform project four years ago, the Law Commissions set out to create a codification of insurance contract law that would withstand the straightjacket of European standardisation. The European project has since then been limited in ambition to creating a so-called 28th option; insurance contract legislation to be opted into by the parties to the insurance policy. That being the case, it is entirely logical that the Law Commissions now seem to have entirely abandoned the plans for legislation providing comprehensive codification and are pursuing a step-by-step journey to better insurance contract law.