Introduction

4.1 We still use the expression “Neither fish nor fowl” to describe something (or someone) with ambiguous or hybrid characteristics. The present-day version is a remnant of the much older expression, “Neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring”.1 Fish was for the clergy, flesh for the rich, “good red herring” for the poor. The older, three-part version of the expression is more apt to describe the role of marine insurance brokers than the current two-part version, because it captures the three-way ambiguity of the role of the broker. A marine insurance broker acts as the agent for the assured, but not always in all respects; it is not the agent for the insurer, except that sometimes it can be, depending on the circumstances, and it usually has close connections with multiple insurers; it does not act as principal, except that sometimes it does, and that is how it often looks. A broker is not solely any of these three things but it is something of all three at various times.