Shipowners Protection And Indemnity Association Legal System

The place of protecting and indemnity cover in the marine insurance market cannot be understood without reference to its history and growth. Broadly, it may be defined as insurance against third party liabilities on terms not less wide than those provided by the usual Lloyd' s Hull and Machinery policy, with Institute Time Clauses Hulls attached, but excluding the cover provided by such policy. During the nineteenth century, third party liability first became a serious burden to shipowners, and groups of owners formed themselves into associations, known as "Clubs" , in order to share between them the burden of claims. The owners themselves determined what cover was required and they themselves provided the premium. This principle still applies, the cover altering and expanding to meet the changing needs of the owner members. with approximately 90 % of the world' s registered tonnage of ocean - going vessels entered in the clubs of the International Group, the sharing of claims by the Pooling Agreement and Reinsurance Pool between the major P& I clubs has led inevitably to a wide sharing of experience of different types of claims and often the clubs of the Group will act jointly. P&I Clubs have made a remarkable role in providing marine safe network by shipowners and for shipowners ever since its birth, regarded as a great innovation in shipping and marine insurance.Nevertheless, the protecting and indemnity cover was out of the control of the legal field and academic circles due to the specially professional complexness, that is to say, little attention was paid to the protecting and indemnity cover, confusion with it and even ignorance of it is definitely bad for the legal practice and academic study. So the foundation and motive behind the dissertation is humble attempt to produce a work on a subject largely avoided by the scholars majoring in marine insurance. This dissertation probes into a legal structure and system of the P&I clubs, focusing on that of the United Kingdom, consists of eight chapters in addition to the introducing remarks, more than 230, 000 Chinese characters.The introducing remarks discovers the reason why the author selected the topic and could afford to finish it, and the method of analyzing and expounding the dissertation.Chapter I introduces the history of P&I clubs of the United Kingdom on a mutual basis. The origin of the Clubs may be tracked back to the eighteenth century when, owing to the unsatisfactory marine insurance then available, certain shipowners, particularly in the north of the United Kingdom, joined together to insure their hulls on a mutual basis. The scope of their cover extended only to hull and freight risks; there was not at that time the need for third party liability insurance that exists today. Unsatisfactory though the position was for London merchants, the difficulties encountered by traders from other ports in the United Kingdom were very much greater , since both the companies and Lloyd' s Coffee House operated from London and were designed for the trade of that port. As a result, groups of shipowners at various ports joined together to settle their own hull averages on a mutual basis, eachmember underwriting a share of the risks, for which he was individually responsible. In the early nineteenth century the hull clubs entered a period of decline. This decline was hastened by the abolition of the monopoly in 1824 which opened the way of the formation of new insurance companies which, together with Lloyd' s competed with the clubs and eventually came to offer more competitive rates. Many hull clubs in the period of the early- and mi - nineteenth century. The threat of potentially enormous liabilities led shipowners of the mid - nineteenth to seek protection. They found that a framework for cheap and efficient group protection existed in the form of the hull clubs and this system suggested itself to shipowners as the most cost - effective means of protecting themselves against the new threats to their livelihoods. Old hull clubs were convened into "prot...