Heiss, Helmut; Clarke, Malcolm; Lakhan, Mandeep --- "Europe: Towards a Harmonised European Insurance Contract Law – The PEICL" [2012] ELECD 177; in Burling, Julian; Lazarus, Kevin (eds), "Research Handbook on International Insurance Law and Regulation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Insurance Law and Regulation

Editor(s): Burling, Julian; Lazarus, Kevin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849807883

Section: Chapter 23

Section Title: Europe: Towards a Harmonised European Insurance Contract Law – The PEICL

Author(s): Heiss, Helmut; Clarke, Malcolm; Lakhan, Mandeep

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

23 Europe: towards a harmonised European insurance
contract law ­ the PEICL1
Helmut Heiss, Malcolm Clarke and Mandeep Lakhan



1. INTRODUCTION

Published in September 2009, the Principles of European Insurance Contract Law
(PEICL) are the result of ten years of academic work undertaken by the `Restatement of
European Insurance Contract Law' Project Group.2 Since its establishment in 1999, the
project has been transformed from being a stand-alone project to a part of the CoPECL
Network, drafting a specific part of the Common Frame of Reference.3 Having continu-
ally worked under the guiding principle that `the law of insurance [in Europe] must be
one',4 its work now represents a model for providing Europe with an optional instrument
(`2nd Regime'), offering the choice of a single legal framework for insurance contracts.


2. THE NEED FOR HARMONISATION

In view of the position taken by the European Commission, following the withdrawal of
the proposal relating to insurance contracts on 4 August 1993,5 the harmonisation process
in the area of substantive insurance contract law began to falter, despite advances being
made in other areas of insurance law.6 The initial incentive behind the Project Group's

1
This chapter is based on previous work, such as Helmut Heiss, `Introduction', in Jürgen
Basedow and others (eds), Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL) (Sellier, Munich
2009) and Helmut Heiss and Mandeep Lakhan, `An Optional Instrument for European Insurance
Contract Law', 26(71) Merkourios Utrecht Journal of International and European Law (2010) ...