Marine Insurance

The Origin of Marine Insurance

Definition: the contract of marine insurance is a special (insurance) contract of indemnity which protects against physical and other losses to moveable property and associated interests, as well as against liabilities occurring or arising during the course of a sea voyage (R. Thomas). S. 1 of MIA 1906: A contract of marine insurance is a contract whereby the insurer undertakes to indemnify the assured, in manner and to the extent thereby agreed, against marine losses, that is to say, the losses incident to marine adventure.

• 9th century B.C.: Lex Rhodia de iactu (the birth of “modern” general average = an extraordinary sacrifice or expenditure which is intentionally and reasonably made or incurred, for the common safety, for the purpose of preserving from peril the property involved in a common maritime adventure). 

• 7th century B.C.: Phoenician maritime law, e.g. general average and marine insurance (traces to be found in the Talmuds of Jerusalem and of Babylon at the beginning of our era). 

• 384 – 322 B.C.: the shipping loan (foenus nauticum) of Greek and Roman origin (the oldest texts are to be found in certain pleadings of Demosthenes). If the loan was based on the ship (bottomry), the borrower had to repay it with high interest only in the case of a successful voyage. Loan could be also based on cargo ( respondentia). 

• 1347: the oldest marine insurance policy (Genova). 

• 1370: the birth of marine reinsurance. 

• 15th – 16th century: fragmentary insurance regulation in medieval cities (e.g. Barcelona, Venice, Florence). 

• 1562: Ordo super assecuratoribus (Dubrovnik) - probably one of the oldest insurance legislation. 

• 1563: the King Philip II Ordinance on Marine Insurance (Belgium). 

• End of 16th century: Le Guidon de la Mer (private collection of marine customs). 

• 1681: The Marine Ordinances of Louis XIV (also received with great respect in the courts of England and the United States). 

• 1688: first mention of Edward Lloyd's Coffee House in Tower Street, London. 

• 1779: Lloyd's standard marine policy – the SG (Ships and Goods) Policy. 

• 1808: Code de Commerce (France). 

• 1859: The Antwerp Marine Insurance Policy. 

• 1871: The Norwegian Marine Insurance Plan. 

• 1884: The Institute of London Underwriters. 

• 1906: The Marine Insurance Act 1906 (U.K. – Sir Mackenzie Chalmers). 

• 1919: The German General Rules of Marine Insurance (ADS). 

• Modern era: the Institute Clauses (1982, 1983, 1995, 2003), the Antwerp Marine Policy, the new policy form MAR (1982, 1991), the American Clauses, the UNCTAD Clauses (1984), the German Clauses (DTV Cargo 2000), the CMI attempts to unify the law, etc.