The following lecture was delivered as the third annual lecture of the Institute of Maritime Law of the University of Southampton on 31 October 1985 by Mr Anthony Diamond, Q.C.

When, exactly a year ago, you did me the honour of inviting me to give the Institute of Maritime Law’s third annual lecture, it was inevitable that I should choose as the subject of my lecture the law of marine insurance. The choice was inevitable since the law of marine insurance is the subject connected with maritime law which, in this decade of the 1980s, has aroused the greatest number of problems and the greatest debate.

It is a particular pleasure to me to give this lecture within the precincts of Southampton University. For I have long been a firm supporter of the view that the key to any development of shipping law, so as to adapt its ancient principles to the needs of today or tomorrow, lies in more academic study of the subject and a greater participation by academics, by original work and teaching, in the process of adaption. In this connection I recall that in the first inaugural lecture1 in this series, given by the Hon. Michael Summerskill, the aim of the Institute was expressed as follows; to be “a focal point for Maritime Law research which could also form a bridge between academics and practitioners”. In his lecture, Mr Summerskill developed the theme that a particular contribution could be made by developing links between the three groups he attempted to define, the market-place, the academics and the legal practitioners. The Institute has already made a promising start to this work. I wish it well.

I am also pleased to see in this room so many friends, acquaintances and colleagues. Their presence in such numbers is perhaps some confirmation of my initial reaction that, if I were to choose a maritime subject which is relevant to the commercial and legal realities of today, then the choice must fall on marine insurance.

The title I have chosen is “The Law of Marine Insurance—has it a future?” This title does two things. First it poses a question which, in due course, I shall attempt to answer. Second, it expresses a point of view, that is, that this branch of our maritime law is far too deeply embedded in its past.

Before I attempt to develop these themes I would like to say a few words about the present. The busy practitioner, when the subject of marine insurance is raised, tends to think of recent cases that have come before the courts and there are many of them ranging from cases on war risks, to scuttling or suspected scuttling cases, to piracy, to reinsurance disputes, to cases concerned with the placing of insurance at Lloyd’s and so on. The commercial man, on the other hand, whether he be underwriter, broker, insurance agent or P. & I. Club manager, tends to think of premium income, loss