The establishment of Lloyd's of London, competitor insurance companies, a developing infrastructure of specialists (such as shipbrokers, admiralty lawyers, and bankers), and the growth of the British Empire gave English law a prominence in this area. This prominence was largely maintained and English law forms the basis of almost all modern practice.
Marine insurance is the oldest type of insurance. Out of it grew non-marine insurance and reinsurance.
Marine insurance adresses legal persons or people having a patrimonial interest in a ship. The insured vessel may be any merchant ship, even fishing boats, if they fulfill the conditions for maritime and river traffic.
