• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.199-218
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• 2005

The international business community has been seeking to change paper based bill of lading to electronic bill of lading for the recent years. The reasons for the need for electronic bill of lading are the benefits to international traders:they are fast to issue, transmit and process. These benefits are eliminate the crisis of bill of lading and come down the cost international business community have to charged. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and issue the problems of the present methods of the Electronic Bill of Lading and find implications to commercialized the Electronic Bill of Lading in the basis of the laws and practices of the international trade. Various attempts are offered to achieve this benefits for the last years such as SeaDocs Project, CMI Rules for Electronic Bills of Lading, and Bolero Project. But these methods are yet to be achieved the goals to substitute the paper-based Bill of Lading to Electronic Bill of Lading entirely.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.23-43
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• 2008

Requirement of facilitating electronic trade transactions and efforts to platform on the electronic trade in major countries are link to the interest of Bill of Lading, the major transportation document, to be electronic, namely interest in Electronic Bill of Lading. Regardless of the benefits from replacing paper based Bill of Lading to the electronic form, which are eliminating of the Crisis of Bill of Lading and cost saving of international trade community, it has not been successful so far. Among the three functions of Bill of Lading, evidence of contracts and receipt of goods can be easily transferable to the electronic form. However the most important function, Document of Title, became the hardest work to replicate in electronic form. The purpose of this paper is to clarify what kind of conditions shall be prepared to ensure the transfer of right and negotiability of the Electronic Bill of Lading and propose to ensure the use of electronic bill of lading and its transfer of right and negotiability in the era of the electronic transactions.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.20
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• pp.369-385
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• 2003

Contracts of carriage evidenced by bill of lading which are made between carrier and unidentified number of the shipper are to a large extent regulated by statute law such as Hague-Visby Rules and Hamburg Rules. These rules qualifies the contractual liberty of parties and especially restrains the carrier from introducing exemption from his liability beyond those admitted by the Rules. However, these Rules are applied only to goods in respect of which a bill of lading or similar document of title has been issued. In this reason, it is possible that liability of carrier in respect of goods shipped could become an issue where electronic bill of lading is used instead of paper bill of lading because electronic bill of lading is not generally recognised document of title in existing rule. Thus, this article discuss the relation between the carrier who create electronic bill of lading and the Rules regulating liability of carrier. Also, new Rules which has been examining in UNCITRAL will be introduced.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.113-130
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper investigates applicability of blockchain based bill of lading under the current legal environment. Legal requirements of electronic bill of lading will be analyzed based on the Rotterdam Rules and recently enacted UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records. Using comparative analysis with the previous registry model for electronic bill of lading, this paper examines the advantages of blockchain based bill of lading. Design/methodology - This research reviewed previous efforts for dematerializing bill of lading with its limitation. Main features of blockchain technology which can make up for deficiencies of registry model also be investigated to analyze whether these features can satisfy the requirements for the legal validity of the negotiable electronic transport record or electronic transferable records under the Rotterdam Rules and the MLETR. Findings - Main findings of this research can be summarized as follows: Blockchain system operated in an open platform can improve transparency and scalability in transfer of electronic bill of lading by assuring easy access for transaction. Distributed ledger technology of blockchain makes it more difficult to forge or tamper with transactions because all participants equally shares identical transaction records. Consensus mechanism and timestamp in a blockchain transaction guarantee the integrity and uniqueness of a transaction. These features are enough to satisfy the requirements of electronic transferable records under the Rotterdam Rules and MLTER. Originality/value - This study has significance in that it provided implications for the introduction of electronic bill of lading by analyzing whether the blockchain based electronic bill of lading model meets the legal requirements under the current legal system prepared prior to the introduction of blockchain technology, and by presenting the advantages of the blockchain based bill of lading model through comparative analysis with the existing registry model.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.227-245
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• 2014

It was ten yeas ago that Bolero Bill of Lading was been introduced on the base of efforts of UN and CMI to solve the crisis of Bill of Lading, but Electronic Bill of Lading is not utilized in practice owing to the problems to be settled. Bolero Bill of Lading is not in widespread use owing to absence of collaboration model between Bolero and e-Trade service providers in each nation in the early stage. In the situation that Bolero Bill of Lading is not utilized in practice, Korean Commercial Law regulates the designation of the registration authority of Electronic Bill of Lading. Therefore, the Minister of Justice designated KTNET as Registration Authority of Electronic Bill of Lading and KTNET opened the e-B/L Korea (www.eblkorea.or.kr) to provide the Electronic Bill of Lading service to domestic trade community. But there is many problems in supplying the Electronic Bill of Lading service by the e-B/L Korea in compared with Bolero Bill of Lading. These problems are related with the characteristics of designation of Registration authority of Electronic Bill of Lading. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the activation of Electronic Bill of Lading domestically by studying the designation of Registration authority of Electronic Bill of Lading in Korea and finding the characteristics of the designation and the issues and problems regarding the characteristics.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.17
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• pp.169-195
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• 2002

The main issue relating to electronic bill of lading is to develop the system in which can transfer the title to the goods by electronically, and to support effect of electronic transfer of title by law. BBL, electronic bill of lading being operated by bolero, provides technical devices to that purpose, but current law is not recognize the effect of transfer of title by electronic communication because BBL is different from paper bill of lading naturally. For that reason Bolero has resolved the problem by Rulebook which is multilateral agreement contracted between users and BAL. The Rulebook provides solution, so called, 'attornment' and 'novation'. So, The purpose of this study is to help in understanding BBL through comparison and analysis about the legal background of transfer of title by BBL based on 'attornment' and 'novation' with transfer of bill of lading based on a endorsement and delivery.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.183-203
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• 2017

Two solution approaches have been suggested globally to solve the crisis of bill of lading; that is to say, electronic bill of lading and sea waybill. Electronic bill of lading is not unsettled as a solution to solve the crisis of bill of lading but sea waybill is used on a global basis to do so. The surrendered bill of lading is applied for practical usage instead of sea waybill in a short voyage among Korea, China, and Japan, owing to faster delivery at destination and lower cost than bill of lading. To surrender the original bill of lading, the consignor should submit all originals with a request letter to the carrier of goods with necessary surrender charges, if any, in doing so. Once after receiving the original bills of lading consisting of normally three originals but in some cases five, the carrier stamped "Surrendered" on the front of original bills of lading and sent a message to his counterpart at the port of destination, stating that the original bill of lading surrendered at the port of shipment and the consignee can take delivery of the goods without production of the original bill of lading at destination. The legal regime of the surrendered bill of lading is not settled as it is not considered legally as bill of lading, and the decisions rendered by each nation's courts are different according to the usages of the surrendered bill of lading. The purpose of this paper is to prevent the disputes between parties with regard to the surrendered bill of lading by studying the causes and precautions of disputes in relation to the surrendered bill of lading.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-68
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• 2009

In 2003, the Uniform Commercial Code(UCC) which is a kind of model law to unify commercial law between several states in US was amended to use electronic document of title including bill of lading. It is the second following the Australia legislation in 1996. Also, the Korean government amended Commercial Act and made the Presidential Decree for using electronic bill of lading in 2008. In this paper the authors reveal the characteristics of the clause of UCC for electronic bill of lading. The characteristics of the clause are on the technical neutrality of the signature, the possibility of reissuance in alternative medium, and adoption of the concept of "control." It helps to suggest some implications for Korean government authority. The authors suggest the amendment of the Presidential Decree to the Korean government authority to use additionally digital signature authorized by non Korean government such as VeriSign. It will activate the use of electronic bill of lading issued by Korea repositary out of Korea.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.281-300
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• 2009

In 2003, the Uniform Commercial Code(UCC) which is a kind of model law to unify commercial law between several states in US was amended to use electronic document of title including bill of lading. It is the second following the Australia legislation in 1996. Also, the Korean government amended Commercial Act and made the Presidential Decree for using electronic bill of lading in 2008. In this paper the authors reveal the characteristics of the clause of UCC for electronic bill of lading. The characteristics of the clause are on the technical neutrality of the signature, the possibility of reissuance in alternative medium, and adoption of the concept of "control." It helps to suggest some implications for Korean government authority. The authors suggest the amendment of the Presidential Decree to the Korean government authority to use additionally digital signature authorized by non Korean government such as VeriSign. It will activate the use of electronic bill of lading issued by Korea repositary out of Korea.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.30
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• pp.27-58
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to identify key obstacles to the adoption of electronic bill of lading and to suggest an effective way to promote the utilization of electronic bill of lading in international trade field. This study finds that all the respondants have not used 'true' electronic bill of lading that is issued and distributed electronically, and most of them agreed the needs of e-B/L adoption, but their intentions to adopt e-B/L remain very low in the present situation. Five obstacles to the adoption of e-B/L were derived from an explanatory factor analysis: 'integration' factor, 'law institution' factor, 'usability' factor, 'economic efficiency' factor, and 'security' factor. Solutions to promote the utilization of e-B/L in international trade field are as follows; Firstly, to endow e-B/L with the legal force through amending relevant laws including the commercial law. Secondly, to conclude the relevant international agreement, and to carry out joint projects between nations are needed. Thirdly, to conduct publicity campaigns is required to increase the understanding of the concepts and benefits of e-B/L to all concerned parties. Fourthly, stable and reliable system must be constructed with high level security. Fifthly, to readjust the service fee of e-B/L system to a realistic level is to be needed in order for user companies to use e-B/L service.