Insurance Law Reform in the Commonwealth Caribbean: In the Interests of the Insured Policyholder?

This paper focuses on the extensive law reform that has been conducted in the Commonwealth Caribbean with respect to insurance law. The Caribbean's transition from the colonial dependence on United Kingdom eighteenth- and nineteenth-century legislation and its subsequent acceptance of the Caribbean Law Institute's (CLI) Insurance Bill of 1993 is examined within the context of regional integration and the creation of the Caribbean Single Market & Economy. Discussion highlights several shortcomings at both the regional and national level which threaten to undermine the level of protection afforded insured policyholders. Regionally, while the fragmented dialogue on integration mirrors that experienced by the European Union, the Caribbean cannot yet claim the same degree of success. The outcome is that there is an absence of consolidated supervision and/or coherent rules and guidelines. For the insurer, this increases the regulatory complexity of regional insurance business. At the national level, apart from the failure by some territories to embrace the CLI reforms signalling that protection is prima facie dependent on the jurisdiction from which the insured hails, perhaps reflective of the regional harmonization effort, institutional consolidation is being witnessed with the emergence of super ‘one-stop’ regulators by some Caribbean territories. This consolidation, it is canvassed, threatens to further obscure the needs of the insured and even where legislative reform has occurred, as in the case of Jamaica with the 2001 Insurance Act, the philosophical stance is so dissimilar from its regional counterparts that a tension is created that must be accommodated on the regional front. Collectively the developments raise questions as to the raison d'être of insurance law and whether the regime, as currently constructed, is truly capable of meeting the needs of insured policyholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]