Contents

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

List of References and Sources

Foreword

Introduction The Subject and Focus of the Present Study

Chapter One Standard Contract Terms in National and International Business

1.1. From Weapons to Contracts: Standardisation Takes Command

1.2. Contract Terms and Conditions in Individual Countries

1.2.1. The Beginnings of Standardisation in Technology and Law (ca. 1770–1830)

1.2.2. Intensification of the Mass Phenomenon (ca. 1830–1870)

1.2.3. Institutionalisation and State Control (ca. 1870–1914)

1.3. Contract Terms in a Global Economy

1.3.1. The Internationalisation of Business (1871–1914)

1.3.2. Adjustment of Contract Bases to Economic Internationalisation

Chapter Two The Earthquake Clause in Fire Insurance Contracts the Development of a Standard (1906–1907)

2.1. The Aftermath of an Earthquake

2.1.1. A Paradise for Fire Insurers

2.1.2. ‘San Francisco is gone’

2.1.3. The Worldwide Aftershocks in the Insurance Business

2.1.4. The Beginning of Damage Settlements

2.1.5. Points of Conflict in Material Law

2.1.6. Attempts to Reach Out-of-Court Settlements

2.1.7. Court Cases and Settlements

2.1.8. The Earthquake Balance Sheet: The View from the International Insurance Business

2.2. The Reactions of the Insurance Industry

2.2.1. The San Francisco Disaster: Difference in the Perception of the Events

2.2.2. Danger or Risk? Differences in the Perception of the Possible

2.2.3. San Francisco, Valparaiso, Kingston: The Global Dimension

2.2.4. Radical Thought Experiments

2.2.5. The Initial Consequences in the Crisis Regions

2.2.6. Additional Premiums or an Earthquake Clause?

2.3. The Motors of an International Standardisation of the Earthquake Clause

2.3.1. The Project of the Four Reinsurers

2.3.2. Opposition in England and the United States

2.3.3. Adherence to the Concept of the Earthquake Clause

2.4. A New Standard for the World: Results of the Second Part

Chapter Three The Earthquake Clause in Fire Insurance Contracts: The Limits of International Standardisation (1907–1912)

3.1. The Introduction of Unitary Earthquake Clauses

3.1.1. Basic Features of National Developments

3.1.2. Germany: A Broad Consensus on the Earthquake Question

3.1.3. Preliminary Results

3.2. Rejection of the Earthquake Clause and its Alternatives

3.2.1. The Outlines of National Developments

3.2.2. California: Standard Policies as the Threshold for International Standardisation?

3.2.3. Preliminary Results

3.3. No Consensus on the Earthquake Clause

3.3.1. Character of National Developments

3.3.2. Italy: Discourse Control instead of Clause Reform

3.4. The Reasons for Success and Failure: Results of the Third Part

Chapter Four Summary: Paradigmatic Changes in the Law

4.1. New Regulatory Requirements

4.2. New Structures of the Formation of Norms

4.2.1. Scope, Conditions and Limits of the Standard Form Practice

4.2.2. Standardisation of the Contractual Bases as a Novel Organisational Strategy

4.3. Tendencies in the Replacement of State Law

4.3.1. Development of Law between Autonomy and the State’s Claim to Regulation

4.3.2. The Genesis of a Transnational Legal System?

Appendices

Appendix One Table of Companies Involved in the Compensation of Damages Occurred in San Francisco

Appendix Two Table of Companies Involved in the Compensation of Damages Occurred in Valparaiso

Bibliography

Index