Legal Problems Of The Bill Of Lading

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 bill of lading, whether straight bill of lading is document of title, whether carriers must deliver cargo against surrendering original straight bill of lading and applicable law of case with respect to the delivery of cargo not against surrendering straight bill 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 bill of lading is briefly introduced in the article; then the transferability of straight bill of lading is discussed and different laws concerning it are compared. After that, whether straight bill of lading is document of title is discussed. On the basis of the previous research, the author draws a conclusion that the function of document of title of bill is not bound up with its transferability. It is an unreasonable conclusion that straight bill of lading, which is not transferable, is not documents of title.Nowadays, there has been much dispute over the issue on whether carriers must deliver cargo against surrendering original bill of lading, and the...