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6. News from the National Chapters
ARGENTINA
Argentine Insurance Law Conference, October 2004
The Argentinean Association of Insurance Law (AIDA Argentine Chapter) is holding a Congress on Insurance Law in October 2004. It will be the XI Argentinean National Congress on Insurance Law, the IV Latin American Congress on Insurance Law and the IX International Conference.
Organised in conjunction with the Insurance Law Institute of the Lawyer’s Bar (Lomas de Zamora), the conference will take place on 27, 28 and 29 October 2004 in the new building of the Judicial Department at the College of Lawyers (Avenida Larroque 2360 (1828) Banfield, Lomas Zamora, Orovincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina). The main conference topic will be 'The defence of the assured as an alternative solution mechanism for the conflicts in insurance - international perspective' (El defensor del asegurado como mecanismo de solucion alternativa de conflictos en el seguro - proyeccion internacional') and the provisional programme indicates the conference will include discussions on insurance contracts, social and private insurance, insurance against third party liability and insurance in relation to economic events.
For more information on the Congress, please contact info@seguroslomas.com.ar or visit the ‘lomas’ website at www.seguroslomas.com.ar. For further information (in Spanish), please click here. To view the activities programme (in Spanish), click here.
AUSTRALIA
Report on activities and developments of the Australian National Chapter
The members of the Australian Insurance Law Association are preparing to gather in Perth, Western Australia, for the 2004 Annual Conference of AILA. With over 20 sponsors from the insurance industry and the legal profession, registrations have been pouring in for several months. The Perth destination is a very popular one for members of AILA as well as the broader legal and insurance communities.
More information about the Conference can be found on the website www.aila.com.au/conference.
Amongst the high points of the Conference are a panel discussion on Expert Evidence and a hypothetical on "Managing Litigated Claims".
Organisers anticipate that well over 250 attendees will register for the Conference in Perth between 15 – 17 September 2004.
AILA has branches in all of the States of Australia as well as the Australian Capital Territory. Encouraged by the National Board, the South Australian branch (Adelaide) has taken the initiative for the formation of a further branch in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory. The National Board of AILA also continues its efforts to foster good regional relationships with the AIDA chapters in New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore. It is also planning to work more closely with Hong Kong as well as exploring the possible creation of a chapter in Malaysia.
Australian delegates are being encouraged to attend the 2004 Conference of NZILA to be held in Christchurch commencing on 21 October 2004.
This will be the last Conference presided over by the NZILA President, Richard Johnston. The technical programme includes a panel discussion on Practical Issues Arising Under Claims Made Policies as well as Developments in Contract Law. Of broad interest are sessions focussing upon the February 2004 floods in the Manawatu/Wanganui region and Police initiatives in "drug driving".
The final business session is the perennial favourite for NZILA; Associate Professor Duncan Webb of the University of Canterbury will speak on "Insurance Law Developments".
The State Committees of the Australian Insurance Law Association have continued with their extensive educational programmes in 2004. Significant focus has been given to the various reviews of laws touching upon insurance. The Insurance Contracts Act has been the subject of a review. Insurers and their lawyers are also interested in the implementation of the Financial Services Reform Act as well as the various Civil Liability Reforms. In the later category, Australia has substantially changed the law in such diverse areas as occupiers liability, professional indemnity, medical malpractice and the liability of local authorities.
Recently, the Federal Government has enacted legislation to introduce proportionate liability and to give professionals an opportunity to cap their liability under statutory schemes. All of these issues have been the subject of extensive conference and seminar attention by AILA's branches.
AILA had planned its 3rd Annual National Roadshow to be a series of lectures by Phillips Fox Partner and AILA Insurance Law Prize Winner Geoff Masel on the recommendations of the Insurance Contracts Act Review. Regrettably, Geoff Masel died on 8 August 2004 as a result of an illness picked up whilst on holiday in South America. Geoff was one of the founding forces behind AILA and was widely recognised as Australia's foremost insurance lawyer over many years. He will be sadly missed by his family, his broad circle of friends and acquaintances and by the Australian Insurance Law Association and its members.
Michael Gill
Phillips Fox, Sydney
Joint Seminar presented by the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (“the Institute”), the Australian Insurance Law Association (“AILA”) and the International Bar Association ("IBA")
The Institute and AILA are joining with the Insurance Committee of the International Bar Association to present a half day seminar on Friday 22 October 2004, in Sydney. The main theme of the seminar is ‘Insurance and the Law – Some International Perspectives’ but specific discussion topics include the UK and US insurance markets, the law of good faith in insurance contracts and an update from the Hague Convention on International Law Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgments. Speakers attending will include Colin Croly of Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (UK), Stephen Schwab of Piper Rudnick LLP (USA), James Walsh of Carroll Burdick & McDonough LLP (USA), Jan Heuvels of Ince & Co (UK), Nancy Milne of Clayton Utz (Australia), and Martin Manzano of Marval O’Farrell & Mairal (Argentina).
The seminar has been scheduled to provide a “curtain-raiser” to the IBA conference in Auckland starting two days later (24-29 October 2004). It is hoped that the Sydney seminar will provide an opportunity for local insurers, brokers, reinsurers, lawyers, loss adjusters and others to meet and discuss topical legal and market developments.
The Joint Seminar will conclude with a lunch and there are provisional plans in place for social events that evening, before delegates then fly to Auckland the following day.
For further information on the seminar and to access the registration form, please click here.
HUNGARY
Hungarian Colloquium, November 2004
The Hungarian Lawyers’ Association (the Hungarian AIDA National Section) is holding its biennial conference at the Hotel Gellért, Budapest. The VIII AIDA Budapest Insurance Colloquium will be held on 25 – 27 November 2004. Foreign and Hungarian speakers will be discussing community and national insurance law, looking particularly at the significance of the ten new member states joining the European Community and their impact on this area of law.
The provisional programme of events is as follows:
25 November 2004
9:00 Registration
10:00 – 13:00 Motor Insurance Working Party Meeting of the Hungarian AIDA Chapter
19:30 Welcome Party
26 November 2004
9:00 Registration
10:00 – 17:00 Contributions on the Colloquium theme
11:30 Coffee break
13:00 – 14:00 Working lunch
19:30 Dinner
27 November 2004
10:00 – 15:00 Round table discussion
11:30 Coffee break
15:00 Closing of the Colloquium
Translation will be provided on 26 and 27 November. Full paper copies of the Colloquium material will be published. All AIDA members are welcome to attend the Colloquium. Members of the Presidential Council and Working Party Chairmen are not required to pay the registration fee.
Please click here to access the registration form which contains details of the registration fee, payment and accommodation.
For further information please contact Dr Károly Bárd (President of the Hungarian AIDA Chapter) at H-1013 Budapest, Krisztina krt. 39/B, or by fax on (36-1) 489 20 22 or (36-1) 266 14 44, or via email at bard@parallellaw.hu.
ISRAEL
The Israeli AIDA chapter has approximately 200 members. Its main activities are holding quarterly seminars on topical legal-insurance subjects. The most recent meeting on ‘The Lost Years’ attracted over 300 listeners. It was held at the Tel Aviv Sheraton hotel.
The "Lost Years" Supreme Court case is at present the most hotly debated subject in tort and insurance law. The recent judgment of the Supreme Court, handed down by a special panel of 5 justices (as compared with the usual figure of 3), abolished the 20 year old doctrine in the Sharon Gabirel case which established the rule that the estate of persons (including minors) who die in an accident, without dependants, is not entitled to be compensated for the last national income which the victim would have earned, had he not been killed. The new ruling, known as the Ettingen decision, will of course substantially effect insurers. It leaves many open questions, including the method of computation, the offset figures for the personal expenditure of the victim, the justification of a non-supported estate to gain a "windfall" benefit and many others. A petition for further hearing before the Supreme Court has been submitted and is, unusually, also supported by the Attorney General. Such a further hearing is rarely granted, especially where the hearing of the appeal and the judgment were unanimous.
At the one-day seminar, all the lawyers who pleaded the case on appeal presented their case, and there were lecturers by leading law professors and actuaries.
The next seminar is scheduled for December 2004 and will deal with Terrorism and Insurance.
P.G. Naschitz
President, AIDA Israel
Tel Aviv, 5 October 2004
SINGAPORE
The Singapore Chapter has recently elected a new President to continue the active work of former president, Stanley Jeremiah. Mr Chan Hwee Seng has been appointed President of the new committee of the Singaporean Insurance Law Association for 2004/2005. The newly appointed committee intends to continue promoting AIDA’s interests among insurance practitioners and lawyers. It has plans to raise the profile and awareness of the association through future seminars and newsletters.
The new committee consists of Mr Hong Heng Leong (Vice President), Ms Valerie Low (Secretary), Ms Patricia Mack (Treasurer), as well as further committee members; Mr Chia Ko-Wen, Mr Dharmendra Yadav, Ms Lim Lay Hui, Ms Susan Lee and Ms Kala Ponnuduray.
SWEDEN
Report on the Swedish Academic Insurance Day
On 17 December 2003 the Swedish Chapter arranged its by now traditional “Academic Insurance Day” chaired by Professor Bill W. Dufwa. It was extremely well attended by just over 100 delegates, including academics, company lawyers, private practising lawyers and FSA lawyers. Speakers and discussion topics included Professor Bill W. Dufwa (Stockholm University) on a European Standardization of Non Pecuniary Compensation for Personal Injuries, Supreme Court Judge Torgny Håstad on Third Party Issues in the Insurance Context, Thomas Utterström (Assistant Undersecretary, the Ministry of Justice) on The Insurance Contract Act Proposal – Latest Developments, Professor Per-Henrik Lindblom (Uppsala University) on Group Action – Success or Fiasco? About the Background, Present Situation and the Future of the Act on Group Action, Assistant Professor Torbjörn Ingvarsson (Uppsala University) on Responsibility for a “False” Insurance Promise, Rose-Marie Lundström (Wistrand Solicitors) on From Broken Hand Basins to World Trade Center – Is Anything Insurable? and Lars-Olof Svensson (Wistrand Solicitors – Official Receiver in the Svenska Kredit bankruptcy) on Reflections on Insurance Companies in Bankruptcy. Mia Carlsson, doctoral candidate, spoke on Occupational Injury Law and LLM Athina Pehrman and Simon Arvmyren presented their exam papers on Real Estate Conveyance Insurance – a Nordic Comparison and Basic Human Rights and the Tort Law, respectively. Mia, Athina and Simon are all tutored by Professor Dufwa.
The Swedish Chapter’s Annual General Meeting was held in May 2004. Guest speaker was Örjan Edholm of Marsh, who gave a much appreciated talk on corporate governance, D&O liability and insurance. 35 members attended the meeting which was followed by an Italian buffet dinner.
Elected committee members for the year ahead are:
President: Rose-Marie Lundström, Wistrand Solicitors
Treasurer/Secretary: Athina Pehrman, Länsförsäkringar
Committee: Mats Magnusson, the Patient Insurance Association, Anders Nehrman, Handelsbanken Life, Charles Strömgren, Trygg-Hansa Insurance, Mats Danerlöv, Zürich Insurance, Lars-Ivar Sölvinger, Folksam Insurance, Carl-Johan Rundquist, SPP Life and Henrik Sandell, Brunned Solicitors.
Professor Dufwa, President for the last eight years, stepped down and was warmly thanked for his heavy commitments to and efforts for the Swedish Chapter.
Rose-Marie Lundström
Wistrand, Stockholm
UNITED KINGDOM
A report on the British Insurance Law Association 40th Anniversary London Colloquium by Tim Hardy, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert
“One of the most successful colloquia ever” is how one delegate described the recent thirteenth British Insurance Law Association (BILA) London Colloquium that celebrated the 40th Anniversary of BILA. The theme, ‘The Characterisation and Significance of Knowledge’, proved extremely popular with expert market and legal practitioners from around the world participating in the two-day event, with more than 150 delegates from 16 countries attending.
Day One - Significance and treatment of knowledge and information at the contractual and post-contractual stage
On the first day, ten speakers from various jurisdictions discussed the core principles and latest developments in their own countries and considered how, if at all, the fast developing trading conditions and means of receiving, retaining and relaying knowledge and information, have a bearing on decided case law/legislation or general business trends. The participants included:- Professor Malcolm Clarke, University of Cambridge; Michael P Thompson of Edwards & Angell, United States of America;, Professor Jerome Kullmann of Universite of Paris; Christos Chrissanthis of I K Rokas & Partners, Greece; Jorge Angell of L C Rodrigo Abogados, Spain; Reinhard Dallmayr of Bach Langheid & Dallmayr, Germany; Timothy Price of Phillips Fox, Australia; Edward Creasy of Kiln; Professor Rob Merkin, Southampton University; Jack T Riley Jnr of Johnson & Bell, United States of America; AIDA Working Party representatives including Colin Croly, Chairman of the AIDA Reinsurance Working Party and Stefan Speyer of Allianz, Germany. Each of the morning and afternoon sessions concluded with lively panel discussions and questions from the floor.
Day Two - Tests and Methods for Establishing Knowledge and Uncovering the Truth.
The second day the Colloquium had a much more practical slant, with a session devoted to electronic disclosure included in the presentation. The participants included:- The Right Honourable Lord Justice Thomas, Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales; Neil Mirchandani of Lovells, England; Steven L Barney of Plunkett & Cooney, United States of America; Trevor Horwitz of Ernst & Young LLP; Johnny Veeder QC, Gavin Keeley QC, Nicholas Legh-Jones QC, Adrian Hamilton QC and James Collins. The Colloquium concluded with an energetic open forum debate before a panel of ARIAS UK distinguished representatives, which engaged members of ARIAS UK, who joined the Colloquium for the second day session.
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