해상보험계약상 준거법 조항의 집행가능성에 대한 미국연방대법원 판례 소고

The U.S. marine insurance legal system is complex, with aspects of insurance law regulated by individual states and areas of maritime law governed at the federal level. In the 1815 case of DeLovio v. Boit, Justice Joseph Story established that maritime contracts, including marine insurance policies, were within the purview of federal admiralty courts. Shortly after a 1944 Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that insurance contracts involving multiple states constituted interstate commerce and were subject to federal antitrust law, the McCarran-Ferguson Act (1945) was enacted, establishing the application of state law and the right of states to regulate the insurance industry as a whole, with the exception of federal intervention in areas not covered by state law, such as antitrust regulation. In the 1955 Wilburn Boat decision, the Federal Court held that in disputes involving breach of warranties in marine insurance contracts, state law, rather than federal maritime law, applies to interpret and enforce marine insurance contracts in the absence of specific federal enactments or established federal admiralty rules. In February 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the issue of the enforceability of a choice-of-law clause in an insurance contract where enforcement of the clause would conflict with the state’s strong public policy. The Court rejected an exception to the application of federal law in this case and affirmed the maritime law principle that choice-of-law clauses in marine insurance contracts are presumptively valid and enforceable. The Supreme Court held that where federal maritime law and regulations are established, courts should prioritize the uniform application of federal maritime law over individual state laws. The Supreme Court’s decision is positive in that it confirms the consistent and predictable application of federal maritime law in disputes over the application of governing law in marine insurance contracts and maritime contracts, without the need to examine the relevant state laws. For Korean shipping traders, the consistent application of the governing law clauses adopted in various maritime insurance and maritime contracts entailing international trade transactions with U.S. counterparties will help to resolve some of the legal uncertainties in U.S. marine insurance law and maritime contracts following the Wilburn Boat decision.