The Global Insurance Market and Change: Emerging Technologies, Risks and Legal Challenges

This book focuses on the global landscape in which insurance is transacted, and where it is evolving, driven from within by transformative technologies and externally by the necessity to address risks like climate change and health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

It discusses the dynamic challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the industry in areas such as on-demand insurance, embedded insurance, parametric insurance, autonomous vehicles, the rise of fintech, the cyber risk landscape and through initiatives driven by distributed ledger technology or blockchain solutions.

Moreover, it covers the major external challenges confronting the global insurance market, such as the growing insurance protection gap in relation to the affordability and insurability of natural catastrophes and climate change, and pandemics like COVID-19.

This book examines innovations in insurance driven by the industry as well as externally imposed changes and dynamics impacting the industry. It describes these changes, the industry’s responses and the legal framework in which they occur. It canvasses additional regulatory and law reform initiatives that may be necessary to achieve an effective balance between the various competing interests. The book is the first to address these matters holistically with a particular focus upon insurance law, it will describe these changes and industry responses and the legal framework in which they occur.

The Global Insurance Market will be directly relevant to legal professionals, insurers, insurtechs, fintechs, brokers, CEOs of insurance companies, risk managers, legal counsel, academics, researchers, the judiciary, and policy makers. It will also serve as a valuable resource for students of all levels.

Anthony A. Tarr is Director, Robyn Ashton Consulting Pty Ltd; formerly Vice Chancellor, University of the South Pacific; Dean & Professor of Law, Indiana University – Indianapolis; Dean & Sir Gerard Brennan Professor of Law, The University of Queensland, and Dean & Foundation Professor of Law, Bond University; author of ten books/treatises including Insurance Law in New Zealand and Australian Insurance Law. He has been Chairman, Managing Director or Non-executive Director of various commercial and resource sector companies; formerly Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Law Society; Director of the Indiana Bar Foundation and Chairman of the Fiji Law Reform Commission.

Julie-Anne Tarr is Professor of Commercial Law, Queensland University of Technology. She has held professorial and senior executive roles in the United States, South Pacific and Australia including at Indiana University, University of the South Pacific, the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, and Queensland’s Litigation Reform Commission. Specialising in insurance and risk management, emerging technologies and complex contracting, she has authored six books/treatises including Disclosure and Concealment in Consumer Insurance Contracts and The Laws of Australia Insurance. She has published more than 100 articles and law reform reports and is the Insurance and Transport Editor for the Australian Business Law Review.

Maurice Thompson is an Equity Partner at HFW (Holman Fenwick Willan) where he is the firm's Global Head of Litigation Funding. With over 30 years of experience, Maurice has a practice split between disputes and front-end work. In disputes he specialises in large-scale, multi-jurisdictional arbitrations and litigation in the insurance, shipping, aerospace, energy, drones, oil & gas, natural resources and commodities sectors. In the litigation funding space, Maurice has successfully secured funding for large and complex claims, both singular claims and class actions, involving shipping, cartels, mining disputes, commodity trading frauds, biosecurity losses, toxic tort and marine pollution cases. In front-end work, Maurice is instructed by oil & gas majors in the negotiation and drafting of offtake and services contracts, and in the resources and commodity trading sectors he regularly advises on and drafts international sales, insurance and carriage contracts.

Dino Wilkinson is a Partner, Clyde & Co, Abu Dhabi. Dino is recognized as one of the leading technology lawyers in the Middle East and was named in The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for his work in technology, media and telecommunications law. Dino has advised clients throughout the region on technology contracting, data protection and cybersecurity for more than ten years. He has also worked with regional governments and regulatory authorities on a number of significant legislative developments in this area, including the drafting of electronic commerce laws, data sharing regulations and privacy legislation. Dino’s expertise spans all types of technology related contracts, including data processing agreements, software development and licensing, outsourcing, research and collaboration agreements. He has worked on projects of both regional and international significance, including mobile app and internet product launches, national digital wallet schemes and ICT infrastructure rollouts.