Legal Significance of Simplification of Insurance Clauses:Based on American Experience
The simplification of insurance clauses is an important means to reduce the information asymmetry between the insurer and the insured.If the simplification of insurance clauses is considered as a mandatory requirement for supervision,then its standards need to be clarified.Advocating and regulating the simplification of insurance clauses through legislation originated from the Plain English Movement in the United States and was later borrowed by many other countries.The legislative experiences of the United States indicate that there is no perfect or indisputable standard forsimplification of insurance clauses.The subjective standards can easily lead to uncertainty,while objective standards can easily lead to rigidity and single-faced evaluation.The combination of subjective and objective standards as a whole is more reasonable.The experience of the US insurance industry shows that the simplification of insurance clauses is not simply a legal or linguistic issue.In order to ensure the accuracy and feasibility of the standards for the simplification of insurance clauses,it is necessary to collaborate with experts from the insurance industry,linguists,legal professionals,computer technology experts,consumer protection groups,and other related fields.The simplification of insurance clauses in China needs to take into account the literacy level of Chinese citizens and the characteristics of the Chinese language.The immaturity of research on the standard for the readability of Chinese texthas to some extent affected the regulation on the simplification of insurance clauses.Against the current legal background in China,for the insurance policies that concern the public interest or are subject to mandatory insurance in accordance with the law,if their insurance clauses do not meet the regulatory requirements for the simplification of insurance clauses set by the insurance regulatory authority,the insurance regulatory authority may refuse to approve such policies.For insurance clauses of other types of insurance,if the insurance regulatory authority finds that the filing clauses do not meet the requirements of simplification during the review,it can order insurance companies to make corrections,or impose penalties in accordance with the law.Although the insurance clauses should not be held void solely on the grounds that the insurance clauses havenot reached the standards of simplification,the degree of simplification of insurance clauses may have a certainimpact on the interpretation of insurance contracts.
insurance clausesinsurance lawsimplificationreadability testChinese contract text
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