This book provides a critical introduction to the English law of insurance contracts and presents the rules in both their legal and socio-economic contexts. It examines the importance of effective insurance and of effective insurance contract law in society today. The author sets the rules of insurance contract law in the wider context of contract law in general, in order to demystify them and to challenge past assumptions that this area of law is arcane and significantly different from other parts of the law. Comparative reference is made to the corresponding rules in common law countries and also in major jurisdictions in western Europe.