From utmost Good Faith to Algorithmic Faith in Marine Insurance

A “Blue IT” Perspective

The good faith principle has been a dilemma in the common law systems for a long period of time. Yet, despite the dearth of a common law categorisation of this concept, an entrenched piece of statute does refer to it: the Marine Insurance Act 1906. At the same time, new legislative developments have occurred over the past two decades (namely in 2015), with a surgical, yet very powerful, change made to the way the principle of good faith operates in that statute. On such a ground, the work discusses and analyses the British MIA 1906, and its controversial “uberrimae fidei”, from the multifarious angles of observation of English law, Scottish law, as well as a civil law comparator, the Italian legal system.
Additionally, the technological and digital revolution, currently in place, leaves room for possible evolution of both the legislation in this area, but also the way the insurance policy works in the maritime transactions. In a nutshell, the techno-insurance policy, based on the algorithms, may sign, de facto, a new era in the insurer/policy holder relationship: subtle theories that are investigated in the book.