Category: Insurance history · Reviewed by Simon Temme, Account Executive · Last reviewed 2026-06-05
The Marine Insurance Act 1906 was a codifying statute drafted by Sir Mackenzie Chalmers consolidating the common law of marine insurance as developed in the English courts from Lord Mansfield’s commercial decisions of the 1760s onwards. It remained the governing statute of all insurance, marine and non-marine, until the Insurance Act 2015.
Category: Insurance history Also known as: MIA 1906 history, Chalmers Act Enacted: 21 December 1906; in force 1 January 1907 Related concepts: Insurance Act 2015, History of insurance, Lloyd’s Coffee House
The Act codified existing case law into 94 sections covering insurable interest, disclosure, warranties, perils, indemnity, subrogation and constructive total loss. The First Schedule contained the standard form of Lloyd’s policy (the so-called SG form, in use since 1779) and the Rules for Construction of Policy. The Second Schedule contained repeal provisions.
The Act was drafted between 1894 and 1899 by Sir Mackenzie Dalzell Edwin Stewart Chalmers, then a parliamentary draftsman and later President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division. Chalmers’ approach — codification of judicial decisions into self-explanatory statutory text — followed his earlier successes with the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 and the Sale of Goods Act 1893. The Bill was introduced in 1894 but encountered resistance from the London market; it eventually passed in 1906 substantially unchanged from Chalmers’ original draft.
The 1906 Act was, for a century, the single most influential English insurance statute. Although nominally restricted to marine insurance, its provisions on insurable interest, utmost good faith, warranties and indemnity were extended by the courts to all insurance contracts as expressions of common-law principle. The Act was adopted directly into the laws of Australia (Marine Insurance Act 1909 (Cth)), Canada (Marine Insurance Act 1993), India (Marine Insurance Act 1963), Singapore, Hong Kong, and most other common-law jurisdictions.
The Act’s provisions on utmost good faith (section 17) and warranties (sections 33-35) attracted increasing criticism for their harshness to insured parties in the late twentieth century. The Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission undertook a sustained review beginning in 2006. The result was the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 (for consumer contracts) and the Insurance Act 2015 (for non-consumer contracts), both of which repealed or substantially modified key 1906 Act provisions. The 1906 Act remains in force for those provisions not repealed, notably the rules on insurable interest, indemnity, subrogation and constructive total loss.
The wording of a modern marine cargo open cover in the London market is still drafted against the framework of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 — the Institute Cargo Clauses (A) refer expressly to the Act, and disputes on the meaning of “perils of the sea” are still determined by section 30 and the First Schedule.
This entry is part of the Apex Insurance Wiki. Last reviewed by Matt Bartlett on 2026-06-05. Next review: 2026-12-05.
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