Events

IN-PERSON EVENT AT LLOYDS OLD LIBRARY

Over the next decade in this new and evolving technology-led environment, innovative and diverse ways for people and organisations to interact will influence every facet of insurance, from industry services through to actuarial forecasting, underwriting and reinsurance.

The increasing sophistication and availability of powerful artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics to process vast datasets is challenging traditional conceptions pertaining to asymmetry of information and raising issues as to the integrity of data being analysed and the assumptions of the predictive models being deployed. Moreover, the development and expansion of AI in relation to driverless cars, robots, the use of autonomous machines to execute complex financial transactions and other innovations gives rise to diverse legal concerns ranging from the concept of “AI personhood” to bias and liability issues – with obvious insurance implications.

As world economies become increasingly digital, and the physical and digital worlds continue to be inter-connected through the use of AI, robotics and immersive technologies such as the metaverse, the need for risk transfer will remain. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain, powered by smart contracts, provides a mechanism for such a digital bridge whilst also being consistent with the current market structure within which risk is pooled and distributed.

The world has become increasingly digitally connected and will continue to become more so – particularly with advancements in, and growth of, ‘internet of things’ technology going forward in areas such as driverless transport, automated product ordering, and manufacturing.

The ability to access ‘Big Data’ in conjunction with technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics and blockchain create the foundation and operational capacity for new insurance products and new ways to create and consummate insurance transactions.

The presentation will explore – briefly – examples of new insurance products and doors being opened by technological advances to new and exciting opportunities within the insurance industry. It will consider too the legal challenges in this evolving landscape.

Topics to be traversed include usage based and on-demand insurance, embedded insurance, parametric insurance and the insurance of autonomous vehicles.

This convergence of new technologies and consumer demands is creating new and exciting opportunities within the insurance industry, but also complex challenges including determination of liability for harm or damage, privacy considerations, cyber security risks and insurer solvency.

Actual and prospective impacts upon insurance law and practice, serve to highlight opportunities and risks in navigating the changing or changed landscape.

For example, privacy concerns may be exacerbated as greater access to insured’s data and activities raises the risks of a data breach, misuse and fraud, including obtaining unauthorised knowledge about facets of consumers ́ lives, including sensitive data concerning the customer’s health, location, or financial status. Accordingly, regulators will have to carefully consider issues pertaining to the use, access and sharing of such sensitive insurance-related information.

Important – For admittance to Lloyd’s, please make sure to bring along your Lloyd’s pass if you have one or photo ID (driving licence, passport or work ID with company logo and full name).

Hybrid: UCL Law Faculty Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG and online.

Time-travel with us to the year 1826 and learn how case law and legislation emerging then have shaped English insurance law and the UK insurance industry.

Speakers:

• Prof. Robert Merkin KC (University of Reading)
• Prof Philip Rawlings (Queen Mary, University of London and UCL)

Chair: Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer (UCL)

About the event:

As we are celebrating UCL’s bicentenary, we explore what insurance law looked like to lawyers and City merchants in 1826. Then as now, insurance underpins trade, (marine) transport, and innovation, and is interconnected with social and economic policies. Whilst insurance contract law set and continues to provide the default rules for contracts between insureds and insurers, legislation touching on the regulation of insurers has pursued a variety of policy goals and has used different regulatory tools over the centuries. Prof Robert Merkin’s talk will be delivered as an ‘1826 Insurance Law Update’ and will, in addition to examining the significance of the cases and legislation in 1825, provide a wider context on the state of Britain’s trade and colonial expansion at this time. In his talk Professor Rawlings will discuss how developments in insurance brought fundamental changes to company law in the 1820s, opening insurance to joint-stock companies, and how these developments  were part of a broader shift in social and economic thinking on issues ranging from the slave trade to university education.

The lecture will be followed by drinks.

About the speakers:

To anyone in the insurance world, neither speaker needs any introduction.

Prof Robert Merkin KC is a Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Reading and has held honorary and visiting professorships at numerous universities abroad. He is the author of leading texts on insurance law in the UK and a number of common law jurisdictions. He is also the author of Marine Insurance Law: a Legal History (Edward Elgar, 2021) and various articles on insurance law history. He edits the Lloyd’s Law Reports, the Journal of Business Law, Insurance Law Monthly and Arbitration Law Monthly, and is on the editorial board of a number of journals in Britain and other countries. He is also on the panels of the international arbitral institutions of Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Prof Philip Rawlings is Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, QMUL, and Honorary Professor at UCL. Previously, he was Professor of Finance Law at UCL and then the inaugural Roy Goode Professor of Commercial Law and Deputy Director at CCLS. He was also a committee member of the British Insurance Law Association. Professor Rawlings is the author of more than 80 books and papers, including the book, Insurance Law: Doctrines and Principles.

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