This one-off weekend Conference in Bengkulu City (population almost 400,000) was to acknowledge and reflect on the 250th anniversary of Lord Mansfield’s seminal judgment on ‘utmost good faith’ in Carter v Boehm, arguably the most important case in the law of insurance. The judgment was delivered in London at Easter time in 1766.
The insurance issues in Carter v Boehm (1766) arose out of a French attack on Fort Marlborough, a British trading post in Bengkulu (then known as ‘Benkulen’ or ‘Bencoolen’) in 1760. As appears from the accompanying photographs (supplied by Akadika Photography, Bengkulu), Fort Marlborough is presently in very good condition, thanks to restoration work completed by the Indonesian government in 1984.
The Conference included presentations by qualified academics and others (including Professor Robin Pearson of the University of Hull) each morning. It also included a guided tour of the Fort and visits to the nearby jungle for a look at the tallest and largest flower in the world. The attendees absorbed the culture of Bengkulu and the historic Fort Marlborough where the focus of this event took place.
