Modern Insurance Legislation Transplantation Research

Insurance, based on social mutual aid, is an economic compensation system for dispersing risks and compensating losses. Although preventing disaster and reducing sufferings, and ultimately reducing the damages caused by various risks are the instinct of mankind, people, either in China or in other countries, have found all kinds of methods and forms, which contain the modern insurance elements. But the modern insurance system based on the mathematic basis, was finally formed in the course of the development of west capitalist economy. Owing to under-development of commercial economy, a social, economic and cultural environment for commercial insurance was not established in China for a long time. The original insurance form has not been transferred into the modem insurance system. In the western countries, with the socioeconomic development, insurance system has been developing rapidly and the insurance legislation been becoming perfect day by day. In 19th century, with the economic expansion of modern foreign capitalist countries, modem insurance system was introduced to China. Since then, insurance industry started its development in China gradually and up to a certain scale. As a new regulated industry with a strong technical nature, the development of China's modern insurance industry is a course of learning and following suit the western insurance system, the industry's regulation then is basically the version of foreign capital insurance industry. At the same time, under the promotion of the external force, China began to change its traditional law system. Therefore China started the overall transplantation of western laws including insurance law. So during the transferring period of China's modern society and economy, on one hand, seen from the angle of economic basis, the insurance with modern meaning is developing and promoting in the old land of China. In China's traditional laws, the regulations on this newly rising industry cannot be found, so foreign insurance industry's regulations are adopted widely in China. On the other hand, viewed from the macroscopic structure of state law, the prevailing doing is to imitate the western law. Therefore the transplanting of western insurance law has become a historical inevitability.The western developed countries have never stopped exploring the legislation of insurance. Although it traditionally is not a written law country, Britain, as the earliest country to start the legislation on insurance, has formulated many written laws with itsdevelopment of insurance in modern time. Many principles and systems in the insurance laws can be traced back to the British laws. As the representatives of continental law system, the legislation on insurance of France and Germany had very big influences on modern China. China's near neighbor-Japan's modern insurance system was also introduced from western world. With the beginning of modernization, Japan started to transplant western laws wholly and mainly regarded German laws as its reference system in its insurance laws. Owing to the deference of the developing way of Japan's capitalist economy from that of Britain, France, etc. for lacking necessary capital accumulation, so Japan could not adopt the same developing mode of the western capital counties. Therefore the interference of state power to the insurance industry is very obvious. So in insurance legislation, more attention was given to the laws on insurance industry. In modern time, Japan had played a leading role in the social transformation, from which China had received a deep influence in its modernization of laws with its original terminology, classification and cases of insurance laws being nothing but a reproduction of Japan's insurance laws. The insurance legislations of the above-mentioned countries have exerted a far-reaching influence on the generation and the orientation of China's modern insurance law, becoming the main reference model in the transplanting of China's modern insurance legislation.Insurance contract law is the core of ins...