Credit On The Bill Of Lading - A Bill Of Lading, And Bills Comparative Study

Bill of lading and commercial instrument are two different types of commercial documents on account of the different rights and contents they represent. However, since these two documents perform their respective duties in the field of trade, each develop their functions as substituting delivery of goods and payment of money, and are the means of release of credit, therefore, certain comparisons can be made between bill of lading and commercial instrument. In this country, the legal system with respect to commercial instrument is comparatively mature, whereas the legal system in respect of bill of lading has not formed a specialized law, dependent and systematic. In judicial practice, some legal opinions together with the disaccord of the standard of judgment of lightness and wrongness and liabilities have affected the international trade and transportation services of this country, in case of which the social credit for bill of lading will be destroyed in the long run.The first step taken to protect bill of lading's credit is to establish an orderly and reasonable legal system on bill of lading. The research method that I propose to make a comparison between bill of lading and commercial instrument is in a bid to probe into certain common characteristics they both have. In this article, the basis of the forming of credit in respect of bill of lading will be touched upon from two aspects:On one hand, it is considered that bill of lading represents the indirect possession of goods by holder of bill of lading, the core element of which is the right of claiming the return of the possession of good. In essence, it has the nature of claiming the title to goods. The guarantee by the carrier to deliver goods on production of bill of lading is the released credit with bill of lading and, therefore, bill of lading can be deemed as goods itself.On the other hand, bill of lading has the same characteristics as securities. Compared with commercial instrument which falls into the typical category of securities, bill of lading is a kind of quasi-negotiable, rights-granted and no causation required document with undemanding standard format, which also has the character of giving clues and asking for return.By such comparison, it is my opinion that most of the principles in the legal system on commercial instrument can be used as reference for the systemization of the legal system on bill of lading and are definitely the guidance to the judicial practice of bill of lading.