Marine Insurance Law Of The UAE; Ripe for Reform

  

    Marine insurance law of the UAE right for reform UAE Federal Loan number 26 of 1981 more commonly known as the UAE Maritime code the maritime code is 35 years old and arguably showing sign of age Grand Pilkington examined the current review of The Maritime code by the UAE federal government and possible implication for UAE Marine insurance law the American code governed and regulates all shipping practices in the UAE including under chapter 6 contract of marine Insurance relating to insurance for both vessel and Marine Cargo in 2016 35 years since the maritime code was first enacted the provision of chapter 6 in some respect looked increasingly outdated and out of step with the realities of 21st century commercial practice and modern Marine Insurance underwriting review and update committee the UAE Maritime code heated by H.A kamis poem Vice chairman of the maritime transport technical Council and chairman of the Dubai Council for marine and Maritime Industries a federal committee has been mandated on the UAE federal tax fraud Authority resolution number one of 2015 to review and update the maritime code by bringing it in line with International best practices and business needs the committee has indicated it intents to reform the maritime code in light of chain and development in International Convention and treaties as well as by benchmarking with the maritime laws of other developed GCC State while it remained to be seen whether the review of The Maritime code will include reform to the Marine Insurance provision under chapter 6 the revised maritime law would arguably benefit from amendment in three broad areas in order to achieve a better balance between the interest of the assured and the insurer in today's modern Marine Insurance Market and that's it search reform could be difficult to achieve again the backdrop of the UAE civil law legal system and developing Insurance Market good faith and married insurance contract under the current Maritime code Marine insurance contract are contract of utmost good fail article 385 of the maritime code places a positive Duty Ubuntu assured at the time the contract is concluded to disclose all relevant facts and not to remain silent or misrepresent relevant facts which allow the insurer to assess the level of the risk the burden lies squarely on the issue to identify and disclose all the relevant circumstance material to the risk it will be interesting to see whether the committee May seek to modify the duty of at most good faith which underline the Marine insurance can track in the UAE and require insurer placing 

    Marine risk to adopt a more active approach to assessing the risk they underrated rather than a passive stance in relying on the assured to provide all relevant information on the one hand this could be a positive development to promote greater dialogues between the assured and Marine insurers and encourage insurers to identify the information they require in order to underwrite the risk on the other hand however there will be an important departure from the existing law and possibility difficult to reconcile with the UAE Insurance Market work cover is often fronted through local insurance companies who may not necessarily have the relevant expertise to underwrite the risk on a technical basis and where the reinsurance structure has been put in place by the broker and presented to the local fronting insurer late in the day of two facilitate the placement new remedies for non-disclosure as things stand under article 388 of the maritime code an insurer is entitled to avoid the entire contract in the event that there is a failure by the assure to disclose all material information there is no requirement for the undisclosed information to relate the damage solver the law is set out in the maritime code doesn't provide for an intermediate remedy assuming the chlamydia elect to update the existing law to align with best practice in the Modern Insurance Market this could see a more proportionate system of remedies for bridge of the assured prey Inception duties of disclosure to reflect what the insurer would have done had he known of the undisclosed information before entering into the contract a system based on the objective of putting the bodies into the position they would have been in had an accurate presentation of the risk being made would be less Draconian than the primary remedy of avoidance currently found under the maritime code however in coverage litigation in the UAE were preceding are almost entirely document based and witnessed evident ordinarily viewed as unreliable and self-serving it could prove challenging for insurers to establish 

    the course their Underwriters may have elected to take hypothetically speaking particularly where contemporaneous written evident of inducement is limited warranties like many cvlo system there are no specific provision of UAE load that gives spatial effect to the concept of warranties in contracts of marine insurance or Insurance generally given this under UAE law Bridge of marine Insurance warranties doesn't necessarily result in automatic discharge of the insurer from liability under the contract in the absence of a well-defined or clearly understood legal meaning of warranties it can be confusing to understand how much provision should operate in practice under UAE law and to predict with certainly the effect of a warranty bridge in a litigated coverage dispute and the new maritime law would arguably benefit from codified provision to clarify the status of warranties in Marine insurance contract and clearly defined the remedies for warranty Bridge the reform of the maritime code allows an opportunity for increased certainty regarding the use of warranties in Marine insurance policies in the UAE and a new regime to soften the traditional harsh consequences of a warranty Bridge updating the maritime code appears a necessary step to align the UAE Maritime sector with International best practice and modern Marine underwriting in the last 35 years International Commerce and the insurance Market have changed significantly and modification of chapter 6 of The Maritime code will be aided by codification and clarification of the existing law as with all new legislation and statutory reform it remained to be seen how the Marine insurance laws of the UAE May develop and how the chain will play out in practice

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