영국법상 보험계약조건에 대한 연구

Abstract

This article deals with English law relating to insurance contract terms, which

is often referred to for a comparative research in Korea. English insurance

contract terms are regarded as various, and considerably harsh and strict upon

the insured. In particular, the warranty and the clause limiting the risk are

particularly harsh and strict according to the current English law thereabout.

However, the recent trend of protecting financial consumers, and the necessity

for adjusting the existing law to the change of insurance contract circumstances

have prompted a severe criticism against the favor of the current law for the

insurer. It is not surprising that the English Law Commission published the

working paper in 2006 and the consultation paper in 2007 for the purpose of

reforming the law about the warranty and the clause limiting the risk, and are

now preparing for the final report. This article analyses and evaluates the current

English law and the above working paper by the English Law Commission, and

finds their implications for the Korean law thereon.

This article concludes as follows. Firstly, the above working paper suggests

that the requirements and the effect of insurance contract terms be differentiated

according to their kinds and the sorts of insureds such as the retail insured or

the business insured. This desirable proposal seems also applicable to the Korean

law which does not recognise it. Secondly, the above working paper also

suggests that the insurer can be exempted from its liability only when the breach

of an insurance contract term is causally connected to the loss. However,

regarding the level of causal connection it does not require cause the loss, but

increase the risk or contribute the loss. It might be said that this requirement...