87527 - INSURANCE LAW

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the law that governs insurance. Insurance law regulates many different aspects of the insurance activity. It regulates the business of insurance, the content of insurance policies and the handling of claims. Among all these aspects, a crucial element is the insurance contract. The course illustrates these aspects with a special focus on the European legal framework. At the end of the course, students know the basic principles of insurance and insurance law, they are able to interpret insurance contracts and understand the impact of the European insurance regulation on national insurance contract law.

Course contents

The Insurance Law course will provide students with an introduction to the regime of insurance contracts also with a practical approach. For this purpose, students will benefit from the exam of case studies, to be discussed together during classes, and particular attention will be given to international standard forms and clauses and internationally recognized practices, where the case.

In particular, the course will cover the following topics:

1. Basic concepts in insurance law and practice
2. The regulation of insurance
3. The risk, the insurable interest and good faith
4. Pre-contractual information duties
5. Formation of the insurance contract and contract terms
6. Repudiation of policies and liability
7. Claims under the policy
8. Payment under the policy
9. Subrogation

The following specific topics will be in particular deepened during the course, along with an introduction to the contracts or legal relationships that are at their basis: claims-made insurance policies, cargo insurance, examples of compulsory insurance, trade credit insurance.

Readings/Bibliography

The students will benefit from Prof. Orrù’s presentations and materials uploaded on the course’s website on the IOL platform (https://iol.unibo.it/). For this purpose, students are kindly invited to enroll in it.

Further useful books, articles and materials for preparing the exam or deepening specific topics that could be of interest for students, will be suggested during classes and through notices published on the course’s website on the IOL platform. For example, the following books, available at the Unibo libraries, are suggested, with the recommendation of paying attention that some of them mainly deal with domestic laws:

• John Birds and Norma J. Hird, Bird’s Modern Insurance Law, 6^th ed., Thomson, 2005
• Robert H. Jerry, Douglas Richmond, Understanding insurance law, 6^th ed., Carolina Academic press, 2018, ch.s 1, 4, 5 and 6.
• Julian Burling, Kevin Lazarus (ed.s), Research handbook on international insurance law and regulation, Elgar, 2011
• John Lowry, Philip Rawlings and Robert Merkin, Insurance law. Doctrines and principles, 3rd ed., Hart, 2011
• Attila Fenyves and others (eds), Compulsory liability insurance from a European perspective, 2016, e-book

Teaching methods

The course is held in English and consists of lectures performed with power point presentations and other materials, especially case-law and standard contracts and clauses. Students will be involved in the analysis and solution of case studies in order to improve the comprehension of the course's contents and their learning. Workshops concerning specific topics and involving the participation of experts could be organized: students will be informed about them during the course and also through notices published on the professor's website.

Assessment methods

Students having attended at least 50% of classes could benefit from the following assessment method: a short paper on a topic to be agreed together with Prof. Orrù during classes and to be presented during one of the final classes. The assessment will concern the student’s ability to examine the given topic, highlighting the main issues, also through the available bibliographic and case-law resources. The student can refuse the mark, but s/he will have to sit for the normal exam.

The other students will be assessed by a 1-hour multiple-choice exam. The exam will consist of 31 questions, based on Prof. Orrù’s presentations and materials that will be uploaded on the IOL platform and recommended on its forum. Each right answer will give one point, so that it will be possible to get the maximum score of 30 cum laude, whereas each wrong answer will give no penalty.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint presentations, websources, workshops.

Disabled Students or with specific learning disabilities (SLD) needing compensatory tools, may inform Prof. Orrù about their needs in order to be addressed to the School’s specific Services and agree on suitable measures.

Office hours

See the website of Elena Orrù