Jeffrey W. Stempel’s Activities Align with Expertise in Insurance Law
Professor Jeffrey Stempel, Doris S. & Theodore B. Lee Professor of Law, has several recent scholarship pieces forthcoming. Casinos, Covid, and Coverage: Jurisprudential and Insurance Implications of a Litigation Pandemic—which will be published in the UNLV Gaming Law Journal—will uncover why casinos and other hospitality organizations have been largely unsuccessful in leveraging business interruption insurance.
He is also coauthoring a chapter in an upcoming book called Safety in Numbers: Toward More Comprehensive Approaches to Difficult Risks. Professor Stempel and his writing partner Erik S. Knutsen urge a comprehensive approach to insurance. “In our view, the response of disaggregating or fragmenting risk is incorrect and misguided because it overlooks or minimizes the gains to be had from a comprehensive approach to risk that can provide both greater actuarial confidence and commercial advantage. Instead, we urge renewed commitment to insurer bundling of risks, aided by improved sales, underwriting and pricing coupled with enhanced government efforts to encourage a more comprehensive insurance industry embrace of risk.”
Professor Stempel is also working on a project in cooperation with Swiss and German colleagues entitled Reinsurer Liabilities Excess of Policy Limits and for Extra-Contractual Obligations. As a member of the drafting subcommittee, he is writing about the principles of insurance and contract law, along with a model code that has been designated as applicable law in contracts that many European insurers and reinsurers use.
This fall, Professor Stemple will also present a comparative perspective on politics and soft law at a symposium in Zurich. Lastly, because of his contribution to insurance scholarship, Professor Stempel is also being awarded the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Spain. He was also recently appointed to the Editorial Board of the Tort, Trial & Insurance Law Journal, an official publication of the American Bar Association.