The Recent Development of Korean Insurance Law- A Comparative Study with Regards to the German Provisions -

Abstract

The insurance contract law is very important for the welfare of citizens. There is also a sort of competition for the making of better insurance contract law internationally. The insurance contract law has experienced significant change recently in many countries worldwide. Especially in germany(2007) and in japan(2008)there was heavy reform in the field of insurance contract law. The current korean insurance contract law in korean commercial code was effected in 1963. It has many problems. The reform discussion about korean insurance contract law is being done in national assembly. Because of various reasons, it has not passed the national assembly until now. To solve the problems we must look at foreign laws. Especially the german insurance contract law(VVG) has influences to korean law because we adopted the continental-european legal system. The german insurance contract law was reformed in 2007 significantly. It was effected on 1. jan. 2008. Japan has enacted new separate insurance law on 6. june 2008. The german reform issues are follows:reform of definition of insurance contract, the reflection of technical development, the reform of insurance police, duty to give sufficient informations other parties, reform of the duty of disclosure, the abandonment of all or nothing principal, the duty to guarantee contract dividend regularly. Especially, the duty of disclosure was very important reform issue in germany. The japanese insurance law has adopted the duty of passive answer in regard of duty of disclosure. We should regard the special character of insurance contract when we discuss about the reform of insurance contract law. The reform of insurance contract law is also in korea hot issue. This study concentrates on showing the reform contents in germany. The author has also tried to pick out some suggestions from german reform. Through the comparative study he has also tried to check out the possibility of the adaption of creative contents of german reform to korean law.