Bill Of Lading Number Of Issues

A straight bill of lading, refers to a bill of lading which is filled with a named consignee only in the "consignee box". It is not transferable or not negotiable by law in many countries. Because of this, it is rarely used in international trades. So its influence is much less than that of a negotiable bill of lading, and it has been ignored by legislations, textbooks and practices for a long time. Recently since more and more issues and argument concerning it come out, people have to pay more attention to it and several controversial cases have been reported in Lloyd's Reports. Due to these, the author realizes that it is necessary to do some research work on it in a systematic way.The article focuses on the following issues: the transferability of straight bills of lading, whether straight bills of lading are documents of title, and whether carries must deliver cargo against production of original straight bills of lading. These issues are addressed in different ways in different countries, whether by law or by practices. So the article describes these issues according to many countries' laws and practices by comparison.Firstly, the concept of straight bills of lading is briefly introduced in the article; then the transferability of straight bills of lading is discussed and different laws concerning it are compared. After that, whether straight bills of lading are documents of title are discussed. On the basis of the previous research, the author draws a conclusion that the function of documents of title of bills is closely bound up with the transferability. It is the transferability that makes bills of lading become documents of title. On the other hand, the function of documents of title enhances the transferability. So straight bills of lading, which are not transferable, are not documents of title. Furthermore, as many of our scholars explain the term we used to translate the term "document of title" in Anglo-American law in different ways', so the Chinese term is also discussed a lot. The article proposes that we must comprehend the Chinese term together with the original term "document of title".Nowadays, there has been much dispute over the issue on whether carries must deliver cargos against presenting original bills of lading, and the issue is a topical issue in our law practices and theories. So addressing this issue is another important part of this article. According to the attribute of straight bills of lading, the ?author comes to a conclusion that carries may deliver cargos without production of original straight bills of lading after comparing many countries' law practices, and suggests that China Maritime Code needs to be amended accordingly.In the end of the article, the present state of straight bills of lading in China is discussed in particular. Thinking that there lie some unreasonable and faulty ingredients in China Maritime Code concerning straight bills of lading, the author makes some suggestion on the amendment of China Maritime Code.Zhu Xiugen (international law) Directed by Pro. Yu Shi Cheng...