Insurance regulation on the insurance industry via law began in the 1940s in the United States, through several Supreme Court rulings. The first ruling on insurance had taken place in 1868 (in the Paul v. Virginia ruling), with the Supreme Court ruling that insurance policy contracts were not in themselves commercial contracts. This stance did not change until 1944 (in the United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association ruling, when the Supreme Court upheld a ruling stating that policies were commercial, and thus were regulatable as other similar contracts were. Reinsurance is a means by which an insurance company can protect itself against the risk of losses through obtaining their own insuranced from other insurance companies. Source: Wikipedia
