New Voices in Commercial Law Seminar: "Current Issues in Insurance Law and Regulation"

3 March 2016

Time: 5:00pm
Venue: Room 3.1, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, 67-69 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3JB

The New Voices in Commercial Law is a seminar series which aims to provide a forum for debate and an opportunity for attendees to hear early career academics with outstanding potential discuss their research in an intellectually stimulating environment.

• 16.50 - Registration
• 17.00 - 17.50 - First session
• 17.50 - 18.10 - Coffee break
• 18.10 - 19.00 - Second session

Speakers

• Katie Richards (Lecturer; PhD candidate, Cardiff Law School): 'Deterring insurance fraud: less law, more norms?'
  This aspect of my research starts from the judicial account of the forfeiture rule – that it deters insurance fraud. I seek to demonstrate that the rule itself and the courts' dogmatic assertions of deterrence have a minimal role to play in deterring fraud in the real world. There are two bases for this argument i) the limited nature of contract (law) as a governance mechanism drawing on critiques from economics and management/organisation studies and ii) the lessons from criminological deterrence theory which highlight criteria for effective legal deterrents. The criminogenic nature of the insurance market makes it particularly vulnerable to fraud and it follows that if the law does not provide adequate deterrence, another mechanism must be occupying that deterrent role. I seek to show that relational governance (a governance mechanism linked to relational contract theory adopted in business management and organisation) works in tandem with industry initiatives to deter commercial fraud.

• Franziska Arnold-Dwyer (PhD Candidate, Insurance Law Institute, CCLS, QMUL; Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales): 'A doctrine of insurable interest for the 21st century'
  The doctrine of insurable interest is concerned with the insured's relationship with the subject-matter of insurance.  It was originally conceived in the early 18th century to distinguish insurance contracts from wagering arrangements and to guard against the risk that the insured will fraudulently bring about a loss so that he can claim under the policy. The Law Commission has proposed to reform the law on insurable interest so as to define the concept more widely and to apply the doctrine more flexibly. This paper considers the relevance of the doctrine today and offers some suggestions on how the law might be modernised.

Directions

For directions to the venue, please refer to the map.

Contact

For more information, please contact the CCLS Events Team on ccls-events@qmul.ac.uk.

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Photography, video and audio recording

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