On 14 January 2005 the making and performing of insurance contracts came under the aegis of the Financial Services Authority (‘‘FSA’’), exercising its broad rule-making powers under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The result will be a major reworking of insurance law and practice as general (or non-life) insurance products and the activities of general insurance intermediaries come under a detailed general statutory framework for the conduct of business. This discussion introduces the scheme of the 2000 Act, which forms the matrix of the new regime, and then examines the main issues arising from the new Insurance Conduct of Business (‘‘ICOB’’) component of the FSA Handbook of Rules and Guidance. It seeks to do so in the context of criticisms of the common law of general insurance which have resonated for decades .

English insurance law is highly developed and sophisticated. It traces its modern history back to the late 18th century and a number of seminal and celebrated judgments of Lord Mansfield, the founding genius of our commercial law. There has until now been no formal divide between the commercial and consumer aspects of the subject. In its history, policies (we might now say in the favoured jargon, products) evolved to cope with different risks: marine adventures, fire and life being prominent examples. Eventually the public regulatory framework enforced an ever-widening wedge between life business and

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