Feb 1st 2019, 21:48

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE REVOLUTIONARY YEAR OF 1848 -
THIS NEW 19th EDITION OF ARNOULD MAKES A TIMELY APPEARANCE

An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers and Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”

Entitled ‘Arnould: Law of Marine Insurance and Average’, this distinguished volume from Sweet & Maxwell ranks as one of the heavy-weight (definitely!) statements of insurance law published at a time of change.

We can’t help but recall, somewhat whimsically that 1848, the year that the first edition by Sir Joseph Arnould was published, was also the year of multiple revolutions on the European continent. This new edition published recently in 2018 — another year with another ‘8’ in it — has emerged co-incidentally in the few months preceding our withdrawal from Europe.

This edition — the nineteenth — of Arnould could well presage another revolution of another kind, considering the upheavals of Brexit, but then this is speculation. What isn’t speculation is that following a relatively slow and steady evolution, there has been a relatively recent and dramatic acceleration in the pace of marine insurance law, as pointed out by the editors of this latest ‘Arnould’.

Reflecting the developments of recent years, particularly those that have emerged since the previous edition of 2013, this new edition has been extensively updated and has now expanded to some 2,000 pages in length.

Leading an expert team, editor Jonathan Gilman QC, makes special reference, for example, to two reforms embedded in the Consumer Insurance Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 (CIDRA) — and the Insurance Act 2015. These reforms have generated several changes to ‘the law relating to misrepresentation and non-disclosure… the effect of breaches of warranty… and the availability of a remedy for damages for non-payment.’

We are reminded that that CIDRA reforms were discussed in the 2013 edition — and those emanating from the 2015. Act were, for the most part, covered in its supplement. This new edition, says the editor, provides ‘the first opportunity to integrate discussion of the new regimes within the framework of the book as a whole’ — a valuable advantage here, for busy practitioners.

For such a highly specialised area as marine insurance law, this definitive text provides insights and commentary that practitioners inevitably need when providing clients with authoritative and accurate advice, as the reader is guided through the often technical — often contradictory — subtleties that lie in wait for the unwary.

Fortunately, the book works well as a work of reference. The detailed table of contents and index of sixty pages do simplify looking things up. Paragraphs are numbered throughout and for those doing further research, there’s a wealth of references in the copious footnoting and there are lengthy tables of cases, statues and statutory instruments. The five appendices include the Marine Insurance Act 1906, as well as the Insurance Act 2015 and the York-Antwerp Rules 2016, plus marine insurance policy forms and clauses.

For specialists in marine insurance law, the new Arnould is indispensable. Every practitioner in this complex and challenging area should have a copy.

The date of publication is cited as at 25th October 2018.