Reassessing warranty in the marine insurance contract under Chinese law

Abstract

The co-existence of warranty rules in marine insurance law and the “great increase of the degree of peril” provision in general insurance law has created many legal issues in marine insurance disputes in China. Much has been discussed as to whether it is necessary to reform warranty law, and if so, how. This paper identifies that there are two main differing opinions about the reform, but both opinions have their drawbacks. We suggest that, in order to better play its role in risk control, the warranty in Chinese marine insurance law should be reformed and improved through further learning from the English warranty law; and for defects that cannot be solved by the warranty in marine insurance law together with the associated rules in general insurance law, further consideration can be given to reforming the warranty by learning from the alteration of risk rules in other civil law countries.