Reform of the Marine Insurance Act: Options and Constraints

Abstract

Davis notes that the Marine Insurance Act 1909 (Cth) (MIA) has thus far escaped comprehensive review, and ought to be reconsidered in detail as part of a series of insurance and shipping reviews by the Australian Law Reform Commission. Davis describes the nature and context of this review, including the consultation process, and the Commission's core task, which is to strike a workable and widely accepted balance between conflicting pressures. The Commission's latest Discussion Paper on the reform of the MIA identifies three principal areas for reform, these being: warranties (in particular, the harsh impact of minor breaches, breaches irrelevant to the loss, and breaches remedied before loss), the doctrine of utmost good faith, and the requirement for an insurable interest. To a lesser extent, a fourth area of concern is the confusion over the demarcation between contracts of insurance covered by the MIA, and those covered by the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth).