Research On Legal Issues Related To Right Of Control Of Goods Under EBL

With frequent exchanges of international trade, maritime shipping technology continuesto improve, science and technology innovation, the delay of traditional bill of lading’scirculation causes the problems that delivery of goods without bill of lading exposed,while the electronic bill of lading (EBL) by virtue of its superiority to replace thetraditional physical documents is an inevitable trend. Traditional bill of lading holder toprotect their own interests by controlling the delivery of the bill of lading, and thispaperless EBL can rely on the regulation of Right of Control of goods to achieve. Sincethe regulation can separate the exercise of Right of Control of goods and transportdocument apart. It will more effectively link up trade law and transport law, and provideright of goods under EBL more comprehensive protection in the complex environment ofinternational transportation. The provision of Rotterdam Rules of Right of Control ofgoods under EBL is on behalf of a higher legislative level. Although China whether tojoin the Convention has been debated for a long time, because the convention is the resultof multi-party compromise after all, it not necessarily adapt to the specific condition ofChina, and there are imperfections in the convention. But that does not prevent somereference when we establish relevant legal system.Therefore, this article is intended to research on Rotterdam Rules’ relevant provision,make a comparative analysis with the1990CMI EBL rule, combined with Chineseexisting provisions and practice, and provide some suggestions, hoping to benefitChinese legal system of EBL. Firstly, the author elaborates Right of Control of goodsunder EBL about its meaning and nature, and emphasis on the value of Right of Controlof goods for EBL. Besides, the author briefly introduces the international rules andconventions relating to Right of Control of goods under EBL on the whole. Secondly, theauthor focus on analyzing the structure, rules of exercise and responsibility of Right ofControl of goods under EBL, including identifying the subject, content, specific exerciserules, the legal effect of abuse of rights and nonfulfillment and so on. This part of researchare based on the rules of the Rotterdam rules, and combined with the relevant provisionsof1990CMI EBL rule. Finally, according to our domestic legislation, we can find thatthere aren’t any specific rules of Right of Control of goods under EBL in our Maritimelaw, and that article308of Contract Law has no maneuverability. So the lagging legislation has caused the courts behaving widely divergently facing the same kind ofdispute about Right of Control of goods under EBL, and this kind of dispute is verycommon. Therefore, the author recommends that we need to add some related provisionsof Right of Control of goods under EBL in our maritime law, basing on the usefulexperience of Rotterdam Rules and the practice of China, and put forward some concretesuggestions.