2.2 The UK regulation
In international hull insurance, the UK conditions have traditionally dominated. These conditions are also used in the Nordic market.
In the UK, marine insurance is regulated by the UK Marine Insurance Act of 1906 (the “MIA 1906”).(1)https://www.jus.uio.no/lm/england.marine.insurance.act.1906/doc.html#377 In addition, the Insurance Act 2015 regulates some issues which are also relevant for marine insurance. However, similarly to the Nordic Insurance Contract Act, these pieces of legislation are not relevant to the questions addressed in this article. However, the MIA 1906 contains a schedule with “Rules for Construction of Policy”, which were adopted for the SG Form of Policy traditionally incorporated in the MIA. Even if this policy form is no longer used, the construction rules are still applied whenever the clauses used today contain the same wording as those of the SG Form of Policy. In relation to the issues discussed here, Rule no. 10 of the schedule, addressing political or executive acts, is relevant.
The UK market is divided between Lloyd’s and the corporates which effect insurance on identical conditions. Marine risk insurance for ocean-going ships is regulated by several sets of clauses.(2) Institute Times Clauses (Hulls) of 1983 and 1995, International Hull Clauses of 2002 and 2003. A common feature of these clauses is that they are based on the named perils principle, whereby the perils insured against are specifically listed. None of the clauses used contain cover for political risk, which means that this peril is not covered under an insurance against marine perils. However, coverage for this peril is provided by the Institute War and Strike Clauses (Hulls-Time) 1/10/83 as amended 1/11/95 (IWSCH) (Cl. 281).(3)https://www.garex.fr/documents/IWSC_HULL_CL281_1995.pdf IWSCH are therefore the relevant set of clauses for this article.