Insurance Law Issues Due to the Great East Japan Earthquake 2011

Abstract

This article, consisting of two parts, reviews legal issues concerning compensation under insurance contracts for the economic loss incurred by the major earthquake off the Pacific coast of northeast Japan on 11 March 2011 and the following tsunami. The first part started with an overview over the damages caused and how the insurance industry responded to the disaster in general before it took up specific issues. Part Two continues the discussion by analysing how the Japanese courts dealt with the exception clause regularly found in insurance contracts that exempts the insurer from compensating damages due to earthquakes. It then discusses the need of public intervention to provide for an insurance while putting special emphasis on the question how such an insurance should be designed to avoid negative incentives.

(The Editors)