Private International Law of Reinsurance and Insurance
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3
INTERPRETATION
B. AUTONOMOUS INTERPRETATION
3.4 It is a general principle of English law that treaties that have been incorporated into the law of the UK (such as the Brussels Convention or the Rome Convention, but not the Brussels Regulation) are to be construed on broad principles, rather than in the strict manner accordingPage 30
“It is clear from the recitals to the [insurance] directive that one of its purposes is to protect the interests of policyholders. It therefore has a similar character to those articles of the Rome and Brussels Conventions which make special provision for classes of contract where it is considered that the parties are not or may not be in an equal bargaining position and considerations of policy are to be applied.… such concerns underlie and inform the understanding of the drafting of provisions such as these. Similarly it is always important to have in mind that they are intended to have a uniform international application. Their provisions and the Acts by which they are incorporated into English law should not be given a construction deriving from specifically English concepts which are not within the scheme of the relevant international convention.”
3.6
The “purposes” by reference to which legislation is to be interpreted are to be identified from the preamble or recitals, the text of the instrument itself and from its context.6 Some purposes are common to all the European legislation under consideration. Thus, courts very often refer to the fact that the interpretation adopted should be one which contributes to legal certainty.7 Certainty is required in order to “eliminate obstacles to legal relations and to strengthen in the Community the legal protection of persons therein established” which is the ultimate object of the Brussels Regulation and the Rome Convention.8
3.7
Another overriding aim which is apparent in the jurisdiction rules is the need to avoid inconsistent decisions and, linked to this, the need to trust the courts of the other Member States.9 Other considerations are relevant in specific contexts: thus the court has stressed that those provisions which allow a defendant to be sued in a Member State other than that of his domicile (principally those in Article 5 of the Brussels Regulation) should be construed narrowly (since the fundamental purpose behind the jurisdictional rules is to allow a defendant to defend himself in his own state). Other provisions may have been guided by different aims - such as the protection of a particularly vulnerable party as in the context of the insurance