A Study on the Pre-printed Clause of the Bill of Lading

선하증권 인쇄약관에 관한 연구

UCP600 Article 20 (a) (v) states that contents of terms and conditions of carriage will not be examined and Article 34 states that a bank assumes no liability or responsibility for the general or particular conditions stipulated in a document. From this perspective, banks may seem to have no obligation to examine the pre-printed clause of B/L. However, ICC decided that no opinion could be given in relation to the issues surrounding B/Ls that contain delivery clauses. Accordingly, it is agreed by previous cases and some scholars that banks may refuse the B/Ls that contain delivery clauses which are not present in other B/Ls of the same goods and transport routes. Also, ICC published ICC Decision in July 2010 regarding on board notation. In this decision, if a B/L indicates a place of receipt that is different from the port of loading and there is an indication of a means of pre-carriage, then a dated on board notation will be required indicating the name of the vessel and the port of loading. Therefore, banks may,, in some cases, need to scrutinize the pre-printed clauses especially appearing in the front page of B/Ls.