Marine insurance

Marine insurance covers the physical loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport by which the property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and the final destination. Cargo insurance a sub-branch of marine insurance, though marine insurance also includes onshore and offshore exposed property,, hull, marine casualty, and marine losses. When goods are transported by mail or courier or related post, shipping insurance is used instead.

History

In December 1901 and January 1902, at the direction of archaeologist Jacques de Morgan, Father Jean-Vincent Scheil, OP found a tall basalt or diorite stele in three pieces inscribed with 4,130 lines of cuneiform law dictated by Hammurabi of the First Babylonian Empire in the city of Shush, Iran. Code of Hammurabi Law 100 stipulated repayment by a debtor of a loan to a creditor on a schedule with a maturity date specified in written contractual terms. Laws 101 and 102 stipulated that a shipping agent, factor, or ship charterer was only required to repay the principal of a loan to their creditor in the event of a net income loss or a total loss due to an Act of God. Law 103 stipulated that an agent, factor, or charterer was by force majeure relieved of their liability for an entire loan in the event that the agent, factor, or charterer was the victim of theft during the term of their charterparty upon provision of an affidavit of the theft to their creditor.
Code of Hammurabi Law 104 stipulated that a carrier issue a waybill and invoice for a contract of carriage to a consignee outlining contractual terms for sales, commissions, and laytime and receive a bill of parcel and lien authorizing consignment from the consignee. Law 105 stipulated that claims for losses filed by agents, factors, and charterers without receipts were without standing. Law 126 stipulated that filing a false claim of a loss was punishable by law. Law 235 stipulated that a shipbuilder was liable within one year of construction for the replacement of an unseaworthy vessel to the ship-owner that was lost during the term of a charterparty. Laws 236 and 237 stipulated that a sea captain, ship-manager, or charterer was liable for the replacement of a lost vessel and cargo to the shipowner and consignees respectively that was negligently operated during the term of a charterparty. Law 238 stipulated that a captain, manager, or charterer that saved a ship from total loss was only required to pay one-half the value of the ship to the shipowner. Law 240 stipulated that the owner of a cargo ship that destroyed a passenger ship in a collision was liable for replacement of the passenger ship and cargo it held upon provision of an affidavit of the collision by the owner of the passenger ship.
In the Digesta seu Pandectae, the second volume of the codification of laws ordered by Justinian I of the Eastern Roman Empire, a legal opinion written by the Roman jurist Paulus at the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century in 235 AD was included about the Lex Rhodia that articulates the general average principle of marine insurance established on the island of Rhodes in approximately 1000 to 800 BC as a member of the Doric Hexapolis, plausibly by the Phoenicians during the proposed Dorian invasion and emergence of the purported Sea Peoples during the Greek Dark Ages that led to the proliferation of the Doric Greek dialect. The law of general average constitutes the fundamental principle that underlies all insurance.
The oldest hedging instruments to mitigate risk in medieval times were sea/marine loans, commenda contract, and bill of exchanges. Separate marine insurance contracts were developed near Genoa, in Camogli in 1853 and other Italian cities in the fourteenth century and spread to northern Europe. Premiums varied with intuitive estimates of the variable risk from seasons and pirates. Modern marine insurance law originated in the law merchant. In 1601, a specialized chamber of assurance separate from the other Courts was established in England. By the end of the seventeenth century, London's growing importance as a centre for trade was increasing demand for marine insurance. In the late 1680s, Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house on Tower Street in London. It soon became a popular haunt for ship owners, merchants, and ships' captains, and thereby a reliable source of the latest shipping news.
Lloyd's Coffee House was the first marine insurance market. It became the meeting place for parties in the shipping industry wishing to insure cargoes and ships, and those willing to underwrite such ventures. These informal beginnings led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyd's of London and several related shipping and insurance businesses. The participating members of the insurance arrangement eventually formed a committee and moved to the Royal Exchange on Cornhill as the Society of Lloyd's. The establishment of insurance companies, a developing infrastructure of specialists, and the growth of the British Empire gave English law a prominence in this area which it largely maintains and forms the basis of almost all modern practice. Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice in the mid-eighteenth century, began the merging of law merchant and common law principles. The growth of the London insurance market led to the standardization of policies and judicial precedent further developed marine insurance law. In 1906 the Marine Insurance Act codified the previous common law; it is both an extremely thorough and concise piece of work. Although the title of the Act refers to marine insurance, the general principles have been applied to all non-life insurance. In the 19th century, Lloyd's and the Institute of London Underwriters developed between them standardized clauses for the use of marine insurance, and these have been maintained since. These are known as the Institute Clauses because the Institute covered the cost of their publication. Out of marine insurance, grew non-marine insurance and reinsurance. Marine insurance traditionally formed the majority of business underwritten at Lloyd's. Nowadays, Marine insurance is often grouped with Aviation and Transit risks, and in this form is known by the acronym 'MAT'.
It is common for marine insurance agencies to compete with the offerings provided by local insurers. These specialist agencies often fill market gaps by providing cover for hard-to-place or obscure marine insurance risks that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to find insurance cover for. These agencies can become quite large and eventually become market makers. They operate best when their day-to-day management is independent of the insurers who provide them with the capital to underwrite risks on their behalf.
As of 2020, the Nordic region was the largest provider of marine hull insurance at 14% of the world market, China second at 12.4% and Lloyd's of London third at 8.6%, according to the International Union of Marine Insurance.

Practice

The Marine Insurance Act includes, as a schedule, a standard policy, which parties were at liberty to use if they wished. Because each term in the policy had been tested through at least two centuries of judicial precedent, the policy was extremely thorough. However, it was also expressed in rather archaic terms. In 1991, the London market produced a new standard policy wording known as the MAR 91 form using the Institute Clauses. The MAR form is simply a general statement of insurance; the Institute Clauses are used to set out the detail of the insurance cover. In practice, the policy document usually consists of the MAR form used as a cover, with the Clauses stapled to the inside. Typically, each clause will be stamped, with the stamp overlapping both onto the inside cover and to other clauses; this practice is used to avoid the substitution or removal of clauses. Because marine insurance is typically underwritten on a subscription basis, the MAR form begins: We, the Underwriters, agree to bind ourselves each for his own part and not one for another . In legal terms, liability under the policy is several and not joint, i.e., the underwriters are all liable together, but only for their share or proportion of the risk. If one underwriter should default, the remainder are not liable to pick his share of the claim. Typically, marine insurance is split between the vessels and the cargo. Insurance of the vessels is generally known as "Hull and Machinery". A more restricted form of cover is "Total Loss Only", generally used as a reinsurance, which only covers the total loss of the vessel and not any partial loss. Cover may be on either a "voyage" or "time" basis. The "voyage" basis covers transit between the ports set out in the policy; the "time" basis covers a period, typically one year, and is more common.

Protection and indemnity

A marine policy typically covered only three-quarter of the insured's liabilities towards third parties. The typical liabilities arise in respect of collision with another ship, known as "running down", and wreck removal. In the 19th century, shipowners banded together in mutual underwriting clubs known as Protection and Indemnity Clubs, to insure the remaining one-quarter liability amongst themselves. These Clubs are still in existence today and have become the model for other specialized and noncommercial marine and non-marine mutuals, for example in relation to oil pollution and nuclear risks. Clubs work on the basis of agreeing to accept a shipowner as a member and levying an initial "call". With the fund accumulated, reinsurance will be purchased; however, if the loss experience is unfavourable one or more "supplementary calls" may be made. Clubs also typically try to build up reserves, but this puts them at odds with their mutual status. Because liability regimes vary throughout the world, insurers are usually careful to limit or exclude American Jones Act liability.