• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.49
• /
• pp.359-378
• /
• 2011

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.