About Sanctions and the Hybrid Nature of Modern Insurance Contract Law

Abstract

Traditionally, insurance contract law was characterised by radical punitive sanctions, governed by an 'all-or-nothing' logic. This logic has changed as a result of an incorporation of a consumerist approach: more and more, punitive sanctions, have been replaced by more proportionate ones, misbehaviour is only sanctioned insofar as it has caused the insured event to happen, duties and sanctions have been bilateralised, and sanctions are now limited to those instances where a high degree of intention or culpability can be detected. Ultimately, these changes have accounted for the hybrid nature of modern insurance contract law as a move away from business law towards consumer law.