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Professor Howard Bennett delivers Visiting Sat Pal Khattar Professorial Lecture

On 18 August, Professor Howard Bennett delivered a lecture titled “The Insurance Act 2015: Is the Devil in the Detail?” at NUS Law.

The Insurance Act 2015 introduced significant changes to insurance contract law, amending or repealing a number of central provisions of the Marine Insurance Act 1906. The 2015 Act entered into force in August 2016, and reached its 10th anniversary this August.

Before the start of the lecture, esteemed legal professionals comprising (from left) Professor Andrew Simester, Dean of NUS Law; Justice Pang Khang Chau; Professor Howard Bennett: and NUS Law Professor Steven Elliott had a lively catch-up.

Professor Howard Bennett and the lecture chairperson, Professor Steven Elliott, engaged with the audience as they probed the intricacies of insurance contract law.

At the level of general principle, the reforms introduced are to be welcomed. Perhaps inevitably, however, questions arise once the Act is considered at a level of greater detail, including questions of consistency within insurance contract law and questions of consistency between insurance contract law and general contract law. In his lecture, Professor Bennett posited that a more general question is the optimal level of detail to which legislation should extend.

With this year being the 10th anniversary of the implementation of the Insurance Act 2015, which took place in August 2016, the lecture topic proved to be both timely and engaging, with a robust discussion taking place during the Q&A session.

The Sat Pal Khattar Professorship was established with a generous gift from Mr Sat Pal Khattar and family. Mr Khattar is a prominent lawyer, businessman, Indian community leader and alumnus of NUS Law. He founded Khattar Wong & Partners, which went on to become one of the largest law firms in Singapore, and is the Chairman of private investment firm Khattar Holdings.

(from left) Professor Steven Elliott KC, Professor Andrew Simester and Professor Howard Bennett, at the end of the lecture and discussion with fellow legal professionals.

About Professor Howard Bennett

Professor Howard Bennett read English and French Law at King’s College, London, and Universite Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne. After reading for the Bar, he pursued postgraduate studies, again at King’s College, before becoming a lecturer at the University of Nottingham in 1989. He was appointed to the Hind Chair of Commercial Law in 2001. He is an Honorary Member of Chambers at 7 King’s Bench Walk. His research and teaching interests lie in shipping and maritime law, insurance law (with a particular interest in marine insurance law), the law of international trade finance, general contract law, personal property law, and the law of agency.

He is the author of The Law of Marine Insurance (second edition, 2006) and Principles of the Law of Agency (second edition, 2024). He is also on the authorial teams behind Carver on Charterparties (third edition, 2024), Vulnerable Transactions in Corporate Insolvency (2003), Benjamin’s Sale of Goods (12th edition, 2023), and Scrutton on Charterparties and Bills of Lading (25th edition, 2024).

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