Description

There is hardly a marine claim that does not involve insurers as both hidden claimants (by way of subrogation) and hidden defendants (under liability covers). Typical claims include those by cargo owners or their banks against shipowners and charterers, collision actions and general average claims by shipowners against cargo owners/charterers. Shipowners are insured under hull and machinery policies for first party losses and, by P&I Clubs, against liability for collision and cargo claims, cargo owners are insured against loss of or damage to cargo and for general average contributions, lending banks are insured against mis-delivery and buyers are insured against trade debt defaults. However, the codified regime governing these relationships – section 79 of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 – is an incomplete and, in some circumstances, inaccurate statement of the law as it had developed up to 1906. This lecture examines some of the deficiencies in the regime as well as novel issues that have arisen since the law was codified, in particular the rights to which insurers are subrogated and the impact of subrogation claims on arrangements under charterparties.

About the Speaker

Professor Robert Merkin is Professor of Law at the University of Reading in England, Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Auckland and Distinguished Professor in the School of Comparative Law at the China University of Politics and Law in Beijing. He teaches insurance law at the Universities of Auckland and Sydney. His research interests are in the areas of insurance, reinsurance and arbitration. His books and articles on these subjects are regularly cited as authoritative in courts worldwide. These include the looseleaf works Insurance Contract Law, Reinsurance Law and Arbitration Law, each of which is updated three times a year. He edits the Lloyd’s Law Reports, the Journal of Business Law, Insurance Law Monthly and Arbitration Law Monthly, and is on the editorial board of several journals in Britain and other countries. Professionally, Robert is Special Counsel to leading New Zealand law firm Duncan Cotterill, where he advises on a range of matters. He was a consultant to the English and Scottish Law Commissions for their investigation into insurance law 2006-2018 and was adviser to the House of Lords Special Public Bills Committee in 2014-2015 in its review of the Bill, which is now the Insurance Act 2015. He has also provided research papers for the Australian Royal Commission on Financial Services 2019 and is presently advising the New Zealand Government on insurance law reform. In 2015 he was awarded an LLD based on publications and became Queen’s Counsel (honoris causa). Robert sits as an arbitrator for the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre and the Japanese Commercial Arbitration Centre. In May 2020, he was elected as a Fellow of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand. Robert has served as President of the British Insurance Law Association and is Honorary Life President of the International Association of Insurance Law (AIDA).

Who should attend

Lawyers, in-house counsel and legal officers working in the maritime industry and in transport and commercial trade, banks and financial institutions, traders, charterers, forwarders, marine insurers.