ABSTRACT
Common law courts in Canada should make up their mind: are insurance policies to be treated as contracts or as something else? Litigants in many insurance coverage disputes may actually be better off if the special insurance policy interpretation framework as currently employed by Canadian courts were jettisoned, and courts instead interpreted insurance policies using the modern contractual interpretation approach for non-insurance contracts. Alternatively, litigants would enjoy more consistent and fair insurance coverage results if courts instead better employed the purpose-built insurance policy doctrine to achieve the goals the doctrine is supposed to achieve. If insurance policies are indeed warranting unique treatment by courts, as they probably should be, that treatment needs to improve the process — not drag it into the abyss that right-thinking courts rejected long ago.
Knutsen, Erik S, The Insurance Policy: Contract or Not? (And Why That Matters for Insurance Coverage Cases) (November 12, 2025), (2025) 7 Supreme Court Law Review 95.
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