Marine Insurance

A Legal History

Rob Merkin QC, LLD, Professor of Law, Reading University, UK; Distinguished Professor of Law, School of Comparative Law, Chinese University of Politics and Law, China; Honorary Professor of Law, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Professor Emeritus, University of Exeter, UK; and Special Counsel, Duncan Cotterill, New Zealand

This authoritative work forms a comprehensive examination of the legal and historical context of marine insurance, providing a detailed overview of the events and factors leading to its codification in the Marine Insurance Act 1906. It investigates the development of the legal principles and case law that underpin the Act to reveal how successful this codification truly was, and to demonstrate how these historical precedents remain relevant to marine insurance law to this day.

‘The book provides a history of marine insurance law from 1756-1906 and, in particular, highlights the fascinating influence of war and conflict on the development of insurance law and practice. This is a history of trade and conflict through the prism of law and will be of interest not merely to historians, but also to practitioners who need to understand how and why particular clauses were developed and the contemporary understandings which underpinned the drafting of the Marine Insurance Act 1906.’
– Professor Nick Gaskell, University of Queensland, Australia

‘This monumental and meticulous work by one of the leading authorities in insurance law is the first to address comprehensively the history of the legal provisions and jurisprudence relating to marine insurance. Focussing mainly on British, American and European history, it will prove an invaluable and fascinating resource for all students and scholars across a range of disciplines who require a definitive exposition of the evolution of this body of law.’
– Chantal Stebbings, University of Exeter, UK

‘Rob Merkin’s remarkable book delivers much more than its rather modest title promises. It includes a broad-ranging history, both political and nautical, of three centuries of wars and alliances affecting English and American trade. It shows how war, prize, capture by pirates and privateers, blockades, slavery, and the depredations of Confederate cruisers affected the development of the principles of English marine insurance law and practice. Dense and detailed but easy to follow, the connections that it explains are invaluable.’
– Martin Davies, Tulane University Law School, US