Reconstructing Insurance Law: The Law Commissions' Consultation Paper

In July 2007 the English and Scottish Law Commissions published the consultation paper Insurance Law – Non-disclosure and Breach of Warranty (hereafter LCCP) which sets out in detail the Commissions' provisional proposals for the reform of insurance contract law with particular reference to the key areas of utmost good faith, warranties and agency. This article analyses, from a critical standpoint, the LCCP's principal conclusions and recommendations. It begins by noting, as a means of demonstrating that the current reform process should be informed by modern industry practices, that the ways in which modern insurance contracts are concluded differ significantly from those when insurance law was last reviewed by the Law Commission in 1980. The article then discusses the dichotomy between consumer and business insurance given that this distinction underpins the LCCP and its approach towards reforming the pre-contractual duty of good faith. By way of backdrop to the analysis, we consider the approach taken towards reforming the law governing intermediaries acting for prospective assureds during the disclosure process. Finally, the proposed rules for warranties and similar terms are examined. It is argued that the proposal to retain continuing warranties in business insurance contracts will, if implemented, represent a missed opportunity to rid insurance contracts of terms long criticised as draconian and disproportionate in their effect.     

Resolution of Small and Medium-Sized Deposit-Taking Institutions: Back to Basics?

Following the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, financial policy makers have refocused their attention on bank resolution, prompting the creation of new resolution tools and regime reforms. As a result, the focus has mainly been on large, systemically important banks. Less attention has been paid to a broader range of financial institutions, namely small and medium deposit-taking institutions. That tendency limits the applicability of these tools, which are imperfectly adapted to the unique issues faced by these smaller institutions. This article will assess both the successful applications and the limitations of resolution tools to small and medium deposit-taking institution failures, focusing on three tools in particular: the bail-in, the bridge bank, and purchase and assumption. In doing so, the benefits and challenges of each of these tools will be examined through the lens of recent resolution examples in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This article also argues for the availability of public funds to achieve a successful resolution, taking the view that moral hazard concerns are overstated and that rigid bans of public funds are counterproductive to the goals of resolution. Lastly, this article seeks to develop a broad understanding of the systemic importance that accounts for the essential role of small and medium deposit-taking institutions in their communities.     

Back to Basics: A Theory of the Emergence of Institutional Facts

In order to account for the mode of existence of social rules and norms, the author develops a theory of the emergence of institutional facts. Just as other kinds of institutional fact, rules and norms are meanings. Therefore, insight into the emergence of social rules and norms can be achieved by studying the recognition and the communication of meanings. Following accounts of meaning and factuality, institutional facts are characterized as unquestionable shared typifications. It is argued that, in becoming an institutional fact, a typification goes through two phases. First, it becomes a social habit. Second, this habit turns into an obligation by being objectified.     

Legal Rights and Political Realities: Governmental Responses to Homelessness in Britain

This article presents a "contextual" study of Britain's Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977. The article addresses the ostensibly perplexing policy question of why Britain's homeless population has almost trebled in the H years since the homelessness legislation was introduced. The answer is found by subjecting the legislation to a very wide-ranging contextualization process. Rather than simply focusing on the administrative arena in which the act is implemented, the article seeks explanations for its apparent ineffkacy in ideological considerations preceding its enactment, in the legislative process itself, in the (im)precise wording of the emergent statute, and in subsequent government policies in various relevant constitutional and social policy areas. The article concludes that a thorough understanding of the impact of this particular law requires it to be located in a series of interrelated contexts, a conclusion that might plausibly be extended to all studies of "law in society."     

回到中国——转轨经济法的存在及其价值

上世纪九十年代,中国经济法抛弃了早期的计划经济法范式,转向西方寻求资源,形成了市场经济法范式,认为经济法是弥补市场缺陷之法,而当下中国还处在计划权力经济向市场法治社会转轨过程中,中国的问题不是市场高度发达到出现了自身无法解决的缺陷,而是市场发育不全,经济发展处处受到权力因素的掣肘。市场经济法范式与转轨现实脱节,存在严重的正当性危机。如果要问中国法学向何处去?经济法学的回答是:回到中国,回到转轨现实。中国经济法学需要也正在进行第二次范式转换,转换到转轨经济法范式,推动权力经济向法治经济转轨。     

MP3: The Beat Bytes Back

MP3 has become the first major buzzword of the 21st Century. Love it or hate it, MP3 is here to stay, but will it lead to the death of the popular music as we know it, or will it revitalise an industry that many believed was already in a state of decline. The early evidence suggests that it is unlikely that MP3 will cause the demise of either the record industry or of copyright law, but it is certainly the case that MP3 and its associated technologies will have a transformative effect upon both. This article explores the debates that MP3 has given rise to and evaluates the role that law is playing in shaping the future of contemporary popular music.