The Relationship Between The Bill Of Ladings And The Transfer Of Ownership Of Goods In International Trade

We should consider both the general rules of transfer of ownership and the rules of bills when analyzing the problem of the relationships between the bills and transfer of ownership. Moreover, we must explore the problem in respective of the rules of each country as different countries have different rules. The result may be unscientific due to the defection in the method of study, if we discuss this problem only from the perspective of Maritime Law or Civil Law.The legal effects are not the same for the problem of the influences of the bills upon the transfer of ownership in the goods between the Anglo-American countries and the Civil Law countries. There are many significant differences even among the countries of the same law family. Generally speaking, the purpose of transferring ownership is implied in the transferring of the bills in England. The bills are helpful to analyze the unconditional identification of the goods in America. How to dispose the bills would simply influence the security interests of the goods but not alter the ownership of the goods. The transfer of bills has almost no effect on the transfer of ownership in the goods in French. In German and other like countries, the transfer of ownership is synchronized with the transfer of the bills. This is also true to China.The bank possessing the bills only own the security interests while not procure the ownership in the goods in the international accounting. When the bills are in the hand of the bank, whether the goods are owned by the seller or by the buyer should be judged by the way of accounting and the circumstances at that time.The transferring of the ownership of goods through the transfer of electronic bills is first confronted with the general problem brought about by electronic trade. Second, it is confronted with the special problem in the law to the electronic bills that whether theelectronic bills can fulfill the functions executed by the paper bills. There are some international rules and practices about the electronic bill at present. To settle these problems in the law, however, may be a gradual process.China should stipulate the effect of the transfer of bills clearly in her legislation for the purpose of providing clear guidance of law to the international trade and harmonizing with Maritime Law. We should also catch the chance to set the rules of electronic bills in order to adapt to and promote the development of foreign trade.