The Missing Definition of Driver for the Motor Vehicle Insurance Directives. Is Direction Available from the UK?

Will the driver of a vehicle become its passenger during a journey where another passenger assumes control of that vehicle? Perhaps surprisingly, given it is the legislative instrument which regulates the compulsory insurance and civil liability of motor vehicle use across the European Union (EU), the Motor Vehicle Insurance Directive (MVID) 2009/103/EC does not define who is the driver of a vehicle. The legislation and its case law typically refers to the ‘use of a vehicle’, rather than its driver. In this paper, we offer the first assessment of this situation and conclude that whilst this is a largely factual and procedural assessment for the national courts of the EU given the lack of case law and instruction through the MVID, English domestic law may provide the very insight to assist the Court of Justice, pertinent due to a recent preliminary reference, on how it may answer this question.