SOME ASPECTS OF THE INSURER'S LIABILITY IN THE EVENT OF AN INSURED EVENT IN MARINE INSURANCE FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES
SOME ASPECTS OF THE INSURER'S LIABILITY IN THE EVENT OF AN INSURED EVENT IN MARINE INSURANCE FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this article and the subject matter in which I develop my research interests and teaching made me choose the particular title of my article. It will consider various ideas about the historical prototype of the modern insurance contract, as well as some other interesting points in its modern usage for the purposes of the Bulgarian special objective law - namely the Maritime Code. If we try to find specifically and literally the term “marine insurance” in ancient sources of Roman law – it will be a rather impossible task. But we can say that the modern definition of this specific kind of insurance has most in common with the institute of fenus naucticum. Fenus naucticum, is a kind of a loan of money to a merchant involved in transmarine trade to finance his merchandise. This figure is also well known as the Roman and Hellenistic maritime loan (cf. the titles De nautico fenore D. 22.2 and C.J. 4.33). Reading the Roman historical sources, we can see situations when the creditor could take the risk upon himself for the whole voyage or for example until a certain day or the fulfilment of a specific condition of the cargo. But as a conclusion – the essential characteristics of this type of loan for consumption, we can say it is the hypothesis of taking over of the risk of shipwreck and piracy against payment of higher interest. Next, in the article I have presented some special aspects of the current national legislation about concerning marine insurance, such as: differences in the treatment of hull and cargo insurance and also subscription insurance; difference between occurred and eliminated risk; hypothesis of termination of the contract due to increased risk and other. Instead of a conclusion: the meaning and use of the maritime law today is certainly more widespread than in antiquity, but the existence of similarities in the regulation of insurance relations is something that cannot be denied.

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