The intensive development of the sea liquefied natural gas shipping industry, as well as the emerging innovative projects and new technologies in this industry, necessitate a reconsideration of certain fundamental legal institutions associated with such shippings. One such fundamental legal institution is the institution of marine shipping insurance. The authors special attention will be focused on such a basic condition as insurable interest, upon which the right to receive insurance indemnification depends. The article examines such basic insurance objects as a liquefied natural gas carrying vessel: with respect to the existence of insurable interest among various subjects of insurance legal relations in the event of damage to or loss of the vessel; as well as cargo — liquefied natural gas. Furthermore, the terms of the unified Incoterms rules used in the international sale of liquefied natural gas will be analyzed, in order to examine the existence of insurable interest in the cargo. The forms of charters used in the liquefied natural gas shipping are also examined. The comprehensive assessment of the provisions of contractual obligations, in terms of both marine cargo shipping and cargo and vessel insurance, appears possible. As a part of the study of the available insurable interest among the subjects of these legal relations, certain aspects of autonomous maritime vessel insurance will be examined, in particular, some legal status features of crews for such vessels under marine insurance policies. It is worth noting that the largest shipbuilders such as Samsung Heavy Industries, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group seek to create this type of maritime vessel, and the developments are in progress in the Russian Federation. To date, there is no information available in open sources regarding the readiness level of autonomous-type LNG carriers. In addition, the article presents the results of a comparative legal analysis of the provisions of the legislation of states involved both in maritime transportation of liquefied natural gas and in the insurance of vessels involved in such transportation and insurance of the cargo. The author formulates proposals for possible vectors for the development of both domestic legislation and international legal unification.
Anastasia V. Vashechkina (Thu,) studied this question.