Law Reviews – Snippets

1900 – 1949

  • 1919 – LR – The Delivery of A Life-Insurance Policy, Edwin W. Patterson – 26p
    • …it seems well to indicate the steps of negotiation, reflection, drafting, etc., which take place in the usual life-insurance transaction…

1950 – 1959

  • 1950 – LR -The Special Nature of the Insurance Contract: A Few Suggestion for Further Study, Franklin M. Schultz – 15p
    • Logic, it seems, particularly as related to the contract canons of construction, finds little support in the insurance literature.
    • But nowhere has there been a serious, full dress attempt to re-define the modern American insurance transaction as a sui generis <unique> matter. Perhaps the job is too big, or too dull.
  • 1951– LR – The Bar and the Unauthorized The Bar and the Unauthorized Practice of Law: A Survey – 13p
    • In Louisiana, although no statement of principles has been published nor a conference group established, an oral understanding with the Chartered Life Underwriters reportedly has proved effective, with both organizations pledged to keep their own members in line.14

1960 – 1969

  • 1961 – LR – The Purpose of Insurance Regulation: A Preliminary Inquiry in the Theory of Insurance Law, Spencer L. Kimball – 55p
    • The author concludes that it is difficult if not impossible to formulate a general theory of insurance regulation and that such a formulation may never be possible; although we can isolate common goals, the multiplicity of possible paths to those goals would seem to defy a definitive statement.

1970-1979

  • 1974 – Duty to Read–A Changing Concept, John D. Calamari – 24p

1980 – 1989

  • 1985 – LR – TEFRA’s Response to Short-term Abuses of Insurance Annuity Policies – 20p
    • The Mechanics of Universal Life Policies
      • Once the policy is activated, the term policy and the accumulation account each operate independently.
      • He or she may switch back and forth between whole life and term coverage, and may increase or decrease the amount of coverage as needed.

1990 – 1999

  • 1991 – LR – Judicial Rationales in Insurance Law: Dusting Off the Formal for the Function, Peter Nash Swisher – 39p
    • Indeed, one writer has suggested that insurance contract cases frequently read like a chapter out of Alice in Wonderland1
    • Welcome to the wonderful world of Insurance. In it the rules of law of Contracts are reflected as in a fun house mirror.2
    • Even Professor Keeton admits that the underlying justifications for many insurance law cases are “less than ordinarily enlightening.”3

1 J. DOBBYN, INSURANCE LAW IN A NUTSHELL xix (1981).

2 K. YORK & J. WHELAN, INSURANCE LAW: CASES, MATERIALS AND PROBLEMS xv (1982).

3 R. KEETON, BASIC TEXT ON INSURANCE LAW 341 (1971). See also R. KEETON & A. WIDISS, INSURANCE LAW 614-16 (1988); infra note 52.

  • 1999 – LR – Insurance Regulation in the United States: Regulatory Federalism and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Susan Randall – 77p
    • Recent proposals to integrate financial services industries-banking, securities, and insurance-have prompted yet another round of debate over the appropriate structure of insurance regulation and the relative merits of federal versus state regulation.

2000 – 2009

  • 2005 – ABA – Liability Issues in the Sale of Life Insurance, Douglas R. Richmond – 34p
    • “Life insurance provides ample litigation opportunities, but the real action arises out of alleged dishonesty in the sale of cash value policies. This section examines prevalent controversies, claims, and theories.”
  • 2007 – LR – Half-Truths, Whole Lies, & the Duty of Disclosure in Insurance Law, Enrique R. Schaerer – 29p
    • I define a “half-truth” as incomplete disclosure.1
      • It is a misrepresentation only in the loose sense that the omission of certain facts may be somewhat misleading.
    • By contrast, a “whole lie” is defined as an affirmative misstatement of the facts.2

2010 – 2019

  • 2013 – LR – Four Conceptions of Insurance, Kenneth S. Abraham – 46p
    • This is an Article about different descriptions of insurance and the features of insurance law that might flow from them.
  • 2013 – LR – Behavioral Economics and Insurance Law: The Importance of Equilibrium Analysis, Tom Baker and Peter Siegelman – 28p
    • Economists have formalized the insurance companies’ information problems and, in the process, developed what has come to be known as the economics of information.
  • 2017 – LR – Coverage Information in Insurance Law,  Daniel Schwarcz – 72p
    • Of course, the intended audience for judicial information does not include policyholders. Instead, judicial information is directed toward insurers, market intermediaries, lawyers, and judges.
    • Why is insurance law and regulation so fixated on promoting coverage information despite the fact that so little of this information seems to filter down to ordinary consumers?