The Insurance Industry is increasingly influenced by European rules. Insurance companies in the twenty first century are active on the European Market as a whole, and national boundaries are less important. However, opinions differ with regard to the results obtained since the 1990’s.1 A truly ‘level playing field’ seems to be absent; insurers and insured still face many difficulties when entering into cross-border transactions.
Awareness of the effects of the developments of the European Insurance Market and the ‘rules of the game’ is of the utmost importance for the Insurance Industry.
From this perspective, the Master Insurance Studies of the UvA Amsterdam Business School, in co-operation with the Open University of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Association of Insurers and the Netherlands Journal of Commercial Law (NTHR) organised the symposium ‘Insurance and Europe’ on Friday 23 November 2007.
Its contributors were:
Prof. dr. J.G.J. Rinkes (University of Maastricht/Open University of the Netherlands) and dr. M.L. Hendrikse (University of Amsterdam/Open University of the Netherlands): ‘Europe and insurance: the consumer perspective’
Prof. dr. H. Heiss (University of Zürich), ‘The Restatement of European Insurance Contract Law’
Prof. dr. A. McGee (University of Manchester), ‘Competition in the European Insurance Market’
Prof. dr. A.E. Ronner (University of Amsterdam), ‘Enterprise Risk Management in Europe’
Mrs. dr. X.E. Kramer (Erasmus University Rotterdam), ‘Private International Law, Insurance and Europe: The proposal for a Rome-I- Regulation’
Marc Hendrikse is Head of Department of the Master Insurance
Studies at the UvA Amsterdam Business School, Private Law lecturer at the Department of Private Law A at the University of Amsterdam, researcher at the Amsterdam Institute of Private Law, associate professor of Private Law at the Open University of the Netherlands and deputy judge at the Court of Utrecht.
Jac Rinkes is professor of Private Law at the Open University of the Netherlands and professor of European Consumer Law at the University of Maastricht. He is also a deputy judge at the Arnhem Court of Appeal.
Preface
1 Europe and Insurance: the Consumer Perspective – Jac Rinkes & Marc Hendrikse
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Consumer law: general remarks
1.3 Consumers and Insurance Law
1.4 Equality of bargaining power: balancing the parties’ rights and duties in insurance contracts
1.5 The law and economics of insurances
1.6 Practical and theoretical solutions
1.7 Concluding remarks
2 Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL) – Helmut Heiss
2.1 The Principles of European Insurance Contract Law as an academic endeavour
2.2 Support for the PEICL from the European Economic and Social Committee
2.3 The PEICL as a Common Frame of Reference of European Insurance Contract Law
2.4 The PEICL as a future Optional Instrument of European Insurance Contract Law
3 Competition in the European Insurance Market. Principles and Pragmatism – Andrew McGee
3.1 The Insurance Market
3.2 Competition Principles
3.3 Why Insurance is a Special Case
3.4 The Commission’s Approach
3.5 The Inquiry Report
3.6 Concluding Remarks
4 ERM in Europe; developments and methods – Arjen Eelke Ronner
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Business Risk in Multinational Companies in Europe
4.3 COSO
4.4 Basel II
4.5 Solvency II
4.6 Future developments
4.7 References
5 Conflict of Laws on Insurance Contracts in Europe – Xandra Kramer
5.1 Introduction
5.2 European Conflict of Law Rules on Insurance Contracts
5.3 Desirability and Necessity of a New Conflict of Laws System for Insurance Contracts
5.4 The Rome I Proposal on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations
5.5 Concluding remarks