On The Legal Solution Construction Of Electronic Bill Of Lading In Our Country

Traditional paper bill of lading cannot keep pace with the development of international shipping industry. Most of developed countries began to widely use electronic data interchange (EDI) in the field of sea transportation. Our country should establish the application program of electronic bill of lading and proceed the relevant legislation as soon as possible.As a modernization management and communication means, the rapid development of computer technology has changed the whole society a lot. EDI's adoption goes with this trend. The initial attempt made in maritime field is SeaDocs program, electronic bill of lading rules of CMI (Committee Maritime International) and Bolero program came into being hereafter, which were considered as another two important practices of this kind. Besides these, the international legislation of EBL has also achieved some progress.Electronic bill of lading indicates a set of agreed or legal electronic message which can be transmitted to computer terminals of the other or third party by the carrier and reverted to traditional B/L information about contract of carriage of goods by sea through electronic data interchange system. Compared with traditional bill of lading, electronic bill of lading takes on some new advantages.By now the universally applicable international law of electronic bill of lading hasn't been worked out, therefore only some demonstrative model law can be referred and applied. In some countries with common law tradition, electronic bill of lading still cannot be regarded as bill of lading or title certificate, but some other countries and regions have validated electronic bill of lading in their domestic law, such as France, Germany, Korea, Singapore and Hongkong.By now, the existing legal solutions all have its limitation and deficiency. SeaDocsprogram provided us a breakthrough point for the computerization of transferable bill of lading, but it's too simple to be adopted; Electronic bill of lading rules of CM I imposes more responsibilities on the carrier and has been seldom adopted in practice; Bolero program firstly introduces EDI platform for third parties which was a great innovation in carriage of goods by sea, but its high cost and expenses will hinder the further promotion of itself.With reference to Bolero program, our country should build up our own mechanism of electronic bill of lading in the true sense and enforce the supportive legislation. By this means, the parties engaged in carriage of goods by sea can be legally authorized to use electronic bill of lading instead of indirectly applying it through their own agreement.