The international symposium entitled ‘Contextualising Insurance Contracts: Interactions with Various Fields of
Law’ was an event organised as part of the Jean Monnet Module ‘Harmonisation of the Principles of Insurance
Law in Europe’ (HOPINEU), and was generously funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European
Commission. The event was initially scheduled to be held on 28-29 May 2020, however, due to COVID-19
and the subsequent restrictions, it eventually took place during six weekly sessions between 28 January 2021
and 4 March 2021.

The main purpose of the symposium was to focus on insurance contracts in terms of different fields of law
in order to explore existing interactions and tensions. The Organising Committee were delighted to receive a
high number of applications from scholars around the globe, including countries as diverse as the United States,
New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland and Türkiye.

The symposium commenced with a lecture entitled ‘Insurance Law in the Vanguard of Contract Law
Development’ by Prof. Helmut Heiss (University of Zurich/Co-Chair, European Law Institute (ELI) Special
Interest Group (SIG) on Insurance Law), and continued with weekly sessions chaired by eminent scholars in
the field.

You can access the e-book containing the abstracts presented in the symposium via this link.

Day 1: “Contractual Asymmetriesand Balancing Tools”

The first day sessions were chaired by Helmut Heiss and Samim Ünan. The speakers specializing in civil law and insurance law presented papers on the protection of the weaker party in insurance contracts and the standard conditions used in insurance contracts. The sessions gained interest of the audience from countries like Greece, USA and Italy.

Day 2: “Data Protection and Digitalisation: What Implications for Insurance?”

This session of the symposium was chaired by Pierpaolo Marano where data security and the impact of digitalization of the insurance markets on insurance contracts were discussed.

Day 3: “Insurance Contracts in the Commercial Context”

In this session co-chaired by Özlem Gürses and Robert Koch, issues such as whether the general conditions in insurance contracts create unfair competition, insurance contracts where one party is a tradesman and the role of insurance in mergers and acquisition processes were discussed.

Day 4: “Insurance and Transport Risks”

This event was chaired by Kyriaki Noussia (Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter) and the topics discussed spanned the geopolitical character of marine insurance exclusion clauses, insurance schemes for losses arising from rescue operations, cargo theft problem and aviation insurance.

Day 5: “Insurance Contracts: Intersections with Law of Obligations and International Law”

This event was held in two sessions which were chaired respectively by Samim Ünan (Piri Reis University) and Christoph Brömmelmeyer (Co-chair, ELI Insurance Law SIG & Professor, Europa-Universitat Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)). Speakers discussed, inter alia, contract law problems relating to the renewal of insurance policies, the impact of fraud in the conclusion of insurance contracts, and the interpretation of war risks & terrorism risks in insurance contracts by reference to international law definitions.

Day 6: “Insurance Contracts and Dispute Resolution”

This session was chaired by Zeynep Derya Tarman (Koç University) where the issues covered encompassed insurance arbitration, protection of the weaker party in international insurance contracts with respect to the choice of court agreements and applicable law to insurance contracts.

The call for papers for the symposium:

Contextualising Insurance Contracts – Call for Papers