Motor Insurance Law in the Age of Automated Vehicles
UK motor insurance law is being rewritten from two directions at once in 2026. On one side, the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 is moving toward operational effect, shifting civil liability for accidents in genuine self-driving mode from the driver to the vehicle's "authorised self-driving entity" — turning what used to be a fault-based dispute between drivers into a product-liability question insurers have never had to price before. On the other, the post-Brexit unwinding of EU-derived motor insurance law continues: the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) Act reversed the CJEU's expansive Vnuk ruling in Great Britain, while Parliament keeps working through which retained EU measures on compulsory cover survive and which get repealed.
Insurers, brokers and their lawyers are now navigating both changes simultaneously — an autonomy-driven redefinition of who is liable, layered on top of a jurisdiction-driven redefinition of what has to be insured in the first place.
The standard reference, fully updated
The Law of Motor Insurance, now in its Third Edition from Robert Merkin (Professor of Commercial Law, University of Reading; Honorary Professor of Law, University of Auckland) and Maggie Hemsworth, is the standard authority on this area — and this edition is built for exactly this moment. It traces compulsory cover from its 1930 UK origins through the EU Motor Insurance Directives to the current Road Traffic Act 1988 regime, works through the practical mechanics of disentangling UK from EU law post-Brexit, and updates the treatment of insurers' duty-of-fair-presentation defences and compulsory cover for visitors and travellers — all areas where the post-Brexit landscape has moved fastest.
For insurance law practitioners and in-house counsel at motor insurers, it is the reference to have open while the Automated Vehicles Act's liability provisions and the ongoing retained-EU-law reforms continue to reshape the risk this legislation was written to govern.
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Q&A
How does the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 change motor insurance liability? For journeys in authorised self-driving mode, civil liability shifts from the human driver to the vehicle's authorised self-driving entity, turning many claims into product-liability questions rather than driver-fault disputes.
What does the Third Edition add on Brexit? Full treatment of the UK's departure from EU motor insurance law, including the Government's approach to repealing retained EU measures and the practical difficulties of disentangling UK from EU rules.
Does the book cover the Vnuk reversal? Yes — it traces the Vnuk line of case law and covers its reversal, together with related post-Brexit EU developments and their relevance to UK law.
Who are the authors? Robert Merkin, Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Reading and Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, with Maggie Hemsworth.
Where can I order it? Directly from CLNZ Books, with secure worldwide shipping and payment by credit card or PayPal.