The Security Of Electronic Bills Of Lading Legal Research

The traditional bill of lading (B/L) has evolved over time to reflect commercial realities. Maritime commerce has been at the forefront of commercial development since its inception. It is therefore not surprising that the shipping industry has embraced the concept of an electronic bill of lading. In the context of rapid development of E-Commerce, the traditional B/L find it more and more difficult to accommodate the worldwide shipping industry, and many people appeal to reform the traditional B/L, even someone appeal to abolish it. However, the B/L doesn't go to exterminate, on the contrary, a new kind of B/L .electronic bills of lading ,in which information is sent in electronic data.Some people regard it a hopeful substitute of the traditional B/L.Because of the difference of the level of trade and technology between countries.the electronic B/L (E-B/L) developed unbalancely in different countries. Some countries which own advanced computer technology take the lead in introducing electronic bills of lading into the field of cargo shipping by sea. Now electronic bills of lading has become a important part of E-Commerce .however, new technology has brought new challenges and possibilities..the deficiency of electronic bills of lading make it difficult to run safely.To establish the commercial circumstance of electronic bills of lading, worldwide maneuverability and standard is required, so is the security. Security herein have two meanings: technical and legal. Electronic sending of commercial information and transferable document need authenticity, certitude, integrity .secrecy and validity, which serve as the basic of the existance and development of E-B/L, and than need to be solved firstly when we try to substitude the traditional trade ways with electronic ones. In E-B/L field, legal security cannot be split from technical security, and if we reach the former we should not ignore the latter. This paper aims to give some idea of the security involved in implementing electronic bills of lading.The structure of this paper goes like this, the first chapter introduce the development of E-B/L in practice and in laws.and draw a conclution that the electrification of the B/L is a history tide.In the second chapter ,on the basic of reseach the security trap in E-B/L running ,1 conclude six security elements of,E-B/L:the liability of the system, the authenticity of dealers'identity.the integrity and secrecy of electronic data ,and the validity and evidence effectiveness of electronic data .From the third chapter to the eighth ,1 reseach these elements one by one.The third chapter introduce the establishment of the E-B/L security system,and some related laws The fourth chapter introduce the certification authority of E-B/L.In the fifth chapter ,1 introduce the encrypt of electronic information and some countries'control on use/import/export crytography.The sixth chapter introduce the concept and principle of digital signature ,and reseach some related legal issues.The seventh chapter reseach the legal demand of validity, then come to a conclution that to establish a independent electronic information system is necessary.In the eighth chapter ,1 reseach some countries' regulation on the evidence effectiveness of electronic data.Finally , there are some conclusion we can draw:first of all ,we should pay more attention to the security of E-B/L, for the security condition of E-commerce is rather poor, only if the security condition of E-B/L is improved ,more and more enterprises want to use it. Bolero is a joint project, aimed at the use of E-B/L. The ultimate aim is to create a fully electronic environment which offers an alternative to the documents in use for international trade.,.As long as our country is concerned ,althrough we have set down some laws on E-commerce security , there are a lot of problems for us to solve. The electronic bill of lading will undoubtedly become a reality. There are simply too many advantages attached to this form of trading to dismiss the concept. In order for the elect...