독일 보험계약법상 보험자 정보제공의무 등의 내용 분석과 그 도입가능성에 관한 비판적 검토

In 2008, the insurance contract law in Germany was revised, setting up the insurer's duty to provide information, duty of consultation, duty of guidance and the duty to put in writing in relation to the insurance contract. In addition, the policy model was replaced by the subscription model as regarding the time of offering information. The purpose of this amendment was to protect the insurance consumer, which has become the main issue of modernization of insurance contract law in each country. Of course, in Korea, this issue also has been the main target for insurance industry and insurance supervisory authorities. Some articles have already been released about the insurer's duty to provide information and duty of consultation etc in German insurance contract law, considering the possibility of introduction of these duties to Korean insurance laws. There might have some advantages in making the insurer's duty to provide information and duty of consultation etc the legal duties by explicitly stipulating these duties in the insurance contract law like Germany, highlighting the issue of protection of insurance consumers. However, these duties can be theoretically recognized and accepted by the principle of utmost good faith in insurance contract in itself, without effort to make legal duties. It is because that the insurer's duty to provide information, duty of consultation, duty of guidance and duty to put in writing are undisputedly based on the principle of uberrima fides in insurance contract. It may be thought that making them legal duties could put more burden on the insurer by too much expanding the range of these duties. Inevitably, the insurer is required to provide information which does not directly influence in making insurance contract. This insurer's heavy burden in business management might lead the increase of cost of insurance product - insurance premium. This situation may eventually cause disadvantage to the insurance consumer. It is a shame that the article dealing with the principle of utmost good faith in the revised bill of Korean insurance contract law has been eliminated in the process of discussion by the Korean National Assembly. This erased article - principle of utmost good faith- may be used for conduct norms and a crucial criteria for interpretation of relevant legislation. With this principle of utmost good faith, the insurer's duty to provide information etc prescribed in the German insurance contract law can be easily recognized in the process of interpretation, Also, the range of those duties can be reasonably construed based on this principle. In Korea, the article of the insurer's duty to explain clause of insurance needs to be amended as quickly as possible. From this amendment, the insurer's duty to explain clause of insurance should be expanded to the duty to explain information. With this revised insurer's duty to explain information and with the principle of utmost good faith, the function of those duties in the German insurance contact law can be reasonably carried out in Korea. In conclusion, there is no hurry about introduction of those duties prescribed in the revised German insurance contract law to Korean insurance contract law.