要保人之資訊權保障與保險契約特別解釋原則之關係

The Relationship Between the Protection of the Policyholders’ Policy Information and the Special Rules of Interpretation in Insurance Contracts

現代民事法的基本原則之一的私法自治，其重要的內涵即包含了「契約自由」（Freedom of Contract）；契約自由同時為大陸法系與英美法系所承繼及遵從，並奉為民事法之核心原理。在以契約自由為基礎之契約法，其核心與最基本之目的乃是保護經契約當事人磋商後所形成之共同合意的期待；且不論在實務上或學術上對此均有共識。於傳統契約自由原則下締結之民事契約，當事人之間享有是否締約的自由、選擇相對人的自由、決定契約內容與變更的自由，以及締結契約方式的自由等內涵。於該等情況之下，當事人間根據其自由意志進行對等的磋商，除非該契約內容有違反公共秩序或善良風俗，或法律的強制規定等，否則國家即會承認該契約的效力，並在當事人不履行時以政府力量來協助當事人加以執行。甚且，當事人為慎重起見，並為日後執行或釐清爭議有所依據，多願將雙方的合意以文字書寫成書面，並以此為最終合意之證據。

Freedom of contract is one of the main principles of civil law; however, the contemporary society broadly uses the standard form contracts in business and in industry. The party preparing the contract usually takes advantage of the first draft, that causes the inequality between both parties; especially in the field of insurance contract, because this sort of financial instruments has no substantial product or imminent service during the transaction. Therefore, the theory of insurance contract develops the principles of ambiguity rule and reasonable expectation doctrine. Although the reasonable expectation doctrine could not be found in the insurance law of Taiwan, the supreme court of Taiwan explicitly cited this doctrine in 2011. After that, the doctrine was broadly cited by courts of Taiwan and becoming one of the main principles in the interpretation of insurance contract. However, the reasonable expectation doctrine is eventually the exception in discovering the consent of both parties. If the policyholder’s right of understanding the policy information could be substantially protected, then the understanding would be regarded as the mutual consent of both parties. In this scenario, the reasonable expectation doctrine is fine to step back. Therefore, this doctrine is the main approach to ensure the policyholder may understand his/her policy information and to be the main defense in the related lawsuit to protect the policyholder.