Study On The Legal Nature And Legal Liability Of Anti-dated Bill Of Lading

Anti-dated B/L is a common maritime fraud in the shipping trade; this paper aims to clarify the connotation and characteristics of anti-dated B/L by comparison with advanced bill of lading, which is quite similar to the anti-dated B/L.In this paper, the author tries to analysis the causes of anti-dated B/L from the perspectives of the shipper and the carrier. Being referred to as the cancer of international trade, anti-dated B/L not only cause major economic losses to the international trade, but also have damage to the financial management order and management system of the host country and region, and seriously interfered with the normal international trade order.The legal characteristics of anti-dated B/L and which responsibility parties should take have always been the host-debates of legal theory sector and judicial practice sector. In this paper, firstly the author introduces six opinions on the legal characteristics of anti-dated B/L, and then bases discussion partly on the legal characteristics and legal liability of anti-dated B/L from the perspective of concurrence of liability, and further discusses the question of parties' selection proceeding which aims at providing more favorable relief ways with the victims to mostly protect their rights and interests. Finally, it re-examines some confusions and controversies in judicial trial practice which can benefit to the future judicial practice.