In March, I published a book titled “Hegemony, Violence and Insurance – Development of Marine Insurance”. The book is written in Japanese and I’ve had multiple requests for it to be translated into English but as that is not an easy task I thought I’d give a brief synopsis in this article.
Back in 2021 I had written an academic book on English marine insurance law (also in Japanese) and I believe that English law and practice has influenced most marine insurance markets to a certain extent, including Japan. Through the course of writing this academic book, I referred to numerous case law and realised that many of the cases that had since become cornerstones of English marine insurance law were products of war, capture, restraints or else related to violent practice, mostly from 18th century to early 20th century.
Following the publication of that book, from curiosity, I started to research many of these cases from a historical perspective to understand more about the assureds, the political context and the nature of the losses. This became quite interesting, particularly as one of my areas of expertise is “international law on armed conflicts at sea”. This area of law saw much of its development during the Pax Britannia era when British sea power dominated the world. It appeared that many of the developing legal concepts of marine insurance during this period were influenced by the international law on armed conflicts which was also developing at the time. I named my new book accordingly.
My research indicated the political background of the time which self-explained the needs of many of the old clauses. My research extended into the slave trade and the opium trade which were both huge businesses. Ironically, these businesses led to the development of shipping and trade finance, which eventually led to the growth and development of marine insurance as well.
It is not easy to introduce a book in a paragraph. Nevertheless if I try, the essence will be: As marine underwriters, we are sometimes asked why marine insurance covers war risks. Although there may be several responses, one answer could be because, at one time, marine insurance was war insurance. The peril clause of the Lloyd’s SG form explains:
Touching the Adventures and Perils which the said underwriters are content to bear, and do take upon them in this Voyage; they are of the Seas, Men-of-War, Fire, Enemies, Pirates, Rovers, Thieves, Jettisons, Letters of Mart and Counter-Mart, Suprisals, Takings at Sea, Arrests, Restraints and Detainments of all Kings, Princes, and People, of what Nation, Condition, or Quality soever…
Tom Shinya’s book is available from Amazon
