Legal Research On Electronic Bills Of Lading

The work you have in your hands is the final result of a research which, from the very beginning, trusted in the possibility of trading, in the maritime field, on a paper-less basis.Bills of. lading regulations are largely based on custom and usage. Both of them gave origin to the classic type of bill of lading, which the work will try to describe together with its main functions, in order to see if they can be performed on an electronic environment. The work will then try to describe what is called to be the new style of the bill of lading of the twenty-first century: the electronic framework of Bolero and CMI. Electronic commerce is playing an important role in changing the classic way by which the transportation chain participants used to operate and thus need to attract our attention.The international community, aware of the advantages of operating electronically, has undertaken serious efforts in order to benefit from them. All this efforts help the electronic bill of lading to finally find a place in the maritime trade community, by trying to overcome hindrances at any level, whether legal-technic or mental. All of them will be mentioned. Finally, what may be more interesting for a legal researcher, the work will focus on the legal issues pending of being solved or newly coming when trading electronically. Although some solutions already exist, the work will try to show that a law change is needed.These issues will be:1. whether the electronic bills of lading is equivalent to writing;2. whether the electronic bills of lading is a document of title;3. whether the electronic bills of lading is effective to solve legal problem of classic bills of lading;4. those new legal problems which the electronic bills of lading brings such as jurisdiction -security of electronic B/L and the scope of persons are to sign electronic B/L.The whole of this work will encourage everyone involved to make a serious change of mind. Law might reflect the reality of its society. Custom and usage made possible, long time ago, the creation of a law in that sense. In our days, the new technologies and the maritime industry is yelling for a change. Its time for the law to give response.