The differences between the illegality defence in common law and the warranty of legality in marine insurance and the reasons for the differences

This chapter acts as a conclusion to the research covered in the first two parts of this book. The aim of the chapter is to compare the illegality defence and the warranty of legality in marine insurance and to give a clear picture of the differences between them. By analysing these differences, this chapter will try to highlight the insufficiency of warranty of legality from the common law perspective and then attempt to explore why the English courts have adopted another method in marine insurance cases and whether these reasons still function nowadays to prevent marine insurance law from adopting the illegality defence in common law. This work will form the basis of the chapter on the reform of marine insurance law. The chapter contains three parts: the first deals with the nature of section 41; the second examines the differences between section 41 and the illegality defence in common law; and the third part considers the reasons underlying these differences.