Newton, MA—Boston College Law School is pleased to announce that the 2011 Liberty Mutual Prize was awarded to Daniel Schwarcz, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Schwarcz presented his winning paper, Reevaluating Standardized Insurance Policies, at a faculty lunch on November 11th.

The paper, which is forthcoming in the University of Chicago Law Review, empirically debunks the conventional wisdom that the homeowners insurance policies offered by disparate carriers are uniform. In fact, Professor Schwarcz’s research shows that those policies differ radically with respect to numerous important coverage provisions. Yet despite the variability, even informed consumers have no way of comparison shopping. Professor Schwarcz examines the regulatory and judicial options for responding to this lack of industry transparency.

The Liberty Mutual Insurance Company endowed the annual prize in 2008 to recognize exceptional articles written on the law of property and casualty insurance, its regulation and corporate governance.  Administered through Boston College Law School, the prize intends to encourage legal scholarship in the area of property and casualty insurance law. The winning author receives $5,000 and, if the entry has not already received an offer from another journal, an offer for publication from the Boston College Law Review.

More on the Liberty Mutual prize