This authoritative work forms a comprehensive examination of the legal and historical context of marine insurance, providing a detailed overview of the events and factors leading to its codification in the Marine Insurance Act 1906. It investigates the development of the legal principles and case law that underpin the Act to reveal how successful this codification truly was, and to demonstrate how these historical precedents remain relevant to marine insurance law to this day.

Beginning with the pivotal year of 1756, Rob Merkin QC organises his analysis era by era, situating the leading cases and emerging fundamentals of the marine insurance industry in the context of external events such as war, the growth of free international trade, and the expansion of empire. Offering insight into the origins of familiar legal principles in the field, the book provides a deeper understanding of the legal framework within which historical events took place and how this shaped both the development of marine insurance law and the political and economic circumstances surrounding it.

Key features include:

• In-depth research by one of the leading experts in marine insurance law
• Context for and therefore deeper understanding of legal principles in the field
• An authoritative account of the development of modern law of marine insurance through its historical roots.

Legal historians interested in marine insurance and international maritime law more broadly as well as other historians of the period will find the depth of research and breadth of coverage in this book invaluable. Its grounding of important principles in their historical context will also be useful to practising lawyers in the field grappling with current marine insurance issues.