영국법상 비노출본인의 법리와 선체보험계약의 피보험자의 확정 - 대법원 2019. 12. 27. 선고 2017다208232, 208249 판결 -

According to the doctrine of privity of contract in the UK contract law, a third party who is not a party cannot be entitled to or bound by the terms of a contract. However, in the UK, as one of the exceptions to the above legal principle, the doctrine of the undisclosed principal or the unnamed principal was established as a way to overcome the problems of the doctrine of privity of contract. Under the English law, the principle of undisclosed principal also applies to insurance contracts in principle, so even if the agent does not inform the insurer of the fact that the agent has actual authority and the name or existence of the principal, the undisclosed principal can directly become a contracting party. However, criticism has been raised that the doctrine of the undisclosed principal under the English law not only harms the stability of the contractual relationship, but also directly violates the duty of utmost good faith, which is the basic legal principle of insurance contracts. Accordingly, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 (hereunder, 'the Third Party Act') was enacted in 1999 to reform the doctrine of the undisclosed principal. In principle, the above Act also extends to insurance contracts. First, the insurance policy must expressly confers the rights of the contracting party to the third party unless the party explicitly excludes the intervention of the third party in the interpretation of the contract. Second, the identity of the third party does not need to be confirmed at the time of conclusion of the contract, but the third party must be sufficiently identifiable. However, the rights conferred on a third party by the Third Party Act are subject to any terms in the policy. Thus, based on the doctrine of privity of contract, the principal would be able to rely on the legal principle of agent for him.