The Legal Environment For China To Perfect Rules Of The Electronic Transport Records Under The Rotterdam Rules

Nowadays, computer technology is widely used in trade, and the electronictransport documents, such as the electronic bill of lading, electronic sea waybill,which own the advantage of more efficiency, less costs and less possibility of fraud,come to be popular. The advent of electronic transport records is to meet the need ofefficiency and convenience in international trade and transportation. Electronicdocuments are used when traditional ones fail to fulfill the need, but the law for it isinsufficient in the global scope. In order to provide legal basis for the application ofelectronic documents, International Maritime Committee (CMI) and United NationsCommission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) have made some legislationpractice. However, law for shipping documents, such as electronic bill of lading isstill not enough. The Rotterdam Rules which is adopted on the United NationsGeneral Assembly in December2008, is an extremely comprehensive conventionabout the contract of carriage of goods by sea. Some innovations have been made inthe Rotterdam Rules, in which for the first time, electronic transport records areinvented. Electronic transport records are the generalization of transport documents,including electronic bill of lading and other electronic data which comes from tradeand can be used as evidence. In addition, some international and domestic legislationon electronic transport records gradually appears.A single chapter which includes three articles is set in Rotterdam Rules. Itintents to explain the use and effect of electronic transport records, the procedures foruse of negotiable electronic transport records and the replacement of negotiabletransport document or negotiable electronic transport records in Article8,9,10respectively. But the Rotterdam rules are still unable to make the use of electronictransport records unimpeded. To make sure, whether the electronic transport recordcould get the same function of document title as the traditional ones and how toascertain the competent court, more studies are needed. Taking electronic transportrecords into our law system is helpful to solve problems in practical activities, since itis a better solution for the problem of shipment release without collection bill of lading which bothers for many years in shipping and judicial practice.Computer technology starts late in our country, and correspondingly theelectronic legislation is imperfect, so there is no unified legislation of e-commerce. Atpresent, relevant regulations about electronic transport records in our country refer toMaritime Law, Contract Law, Civil Procedure Law and some department rules. TheRotterdam Rules is a balance of the interests of all parties, so it is not a perfect one.One party must have made compromise, and what’s more, there exists uncertainty toChina’s trade. The clear rules of electronic transport records in our law system are notenough to offer a solution for practice. With the uncertainty of whether to joinRotterdam Rules, we choose to wait and take in its essence. Take the definition ofelectronic transport records into Maritime Law, to offer a law basis for electronic billof lading disputes. Intending to establish the same function of electronic transportrecords and paper ones, equivalent principle should be built in Maritime Law. Clearthe definition of data message to enrich the regulations on e-commerce in ContractLaw, so the legal status of e-commerce could be promoted. To protect thetransmission security, we should clarify the legal status of data transmission systemservice provider from the angle of domestic law. Evidentiary effect of the electronictransport records shall be clear in procedural law, and also the court where the datatransmission system service provider locates should better be regard as a newcompetent court to expanding the scope of the jurisdiction.