A Study On Lloyd's Syndicate Litigation Standing: Cross-Border Perspectives And Chinese Practice

In the international insurance market, a syndicate is Lloyd's operational unit for conducting insurance business. It is financially supported by one or more Lloyd's members and routinely managed by a specialist Managing Agent. These Lloyd's members are the actual insurers of the relevant insurance policies.

Section 8(1) of the English Lloyd's Act 1982 provides that:

"An underwriting member shall be a party to a contract of insurance underwritten at Lloyd's only if it is underwritten with several liability, each underwriting member for his own part and not one for another, and if the liability of each underwriting member is accepted solely for his own account."

According to the above provision, for any risk underwritten by a syndicate, each underwriting member bears individual liability according to their respective share. Under traditional English law, syndicates themselves are not legal persons and cannot, in principle, be parties to litigation. Consequently,