It is hard to overstate the importance of insurance in personal and commercial life. It is the key means by which individuals and businesses are able to reduce the financial impact of a risk occurring. Reinsurance is equally significant; it protects insurers against very large claims and helps to obtain an international spread of risk.
Insurance and reinsurance play an important role in the world economy. It is an increasingly global industry, with the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China developing apace.Given the expanding reach of the industry, there is a need for a source of reference that analyses recent developments in the key jurisdictions on a comparative basis. This volume, to which leading insurance and reinsurance practitioners around the world have made valuable contributions, seeks to fulfil that need.
Looking back on 2014, Aon Benfield’s Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report (of 13 January 2015) reveals that 258 global natural disasters occurred worldwide. These events test not only insurers and reinsurers but also the rigour of the law. Insurance and reinsurance disputes provide a never-ending array of complex legal issues and new points for the courts and arbitral tribunals to consider.
