Complete 7 pages APA formatted article: International Trade and Transportation Law. The bills of lading used on international shipments include ocean bills of lading for cargo transported by ocean and air waybills for cargo transported by air. Some bills of lading are negotiable whereas some are not. The difficulties of the non-negotiable bill of lading were explained by Chana (1999). He also discussed about the comparison of bills of lading in China, Hongkong and the United States of America (Chanb, 1998). The status of bills of lading in China was also explained by Chen (1999).
The letter of guarantee provided by the bank or any financial institution will be vital in some cases of bills of lading. For example in case of an Australian context i.e. Pacific Carriers Ltd. v. Banque Nationale de Paris, the bank who had given the letter of guarantee was held responsible for the loss of goods (Derrington and White, 2002). Even though letters of indemnity are a common practice, in some of the cases, they were criticized by the courts for violation of the facts (United Baltic Corp. v. Dundee Perth & London Shipping Co., 1928).
By performing all the above-mentioned functions, the bill of lading contributes significantly to the international trade of goods. With the bill of lading showing that a contract of carriage exists and that the goods have been received by the carrier, a buyer and his bank are assured that the delivery of goods according to the contract of sale is under progress. Similarly, an exporter, holding a bill of lading has the title to the goods, may, by choosing when to pass the bill to the buyer, decides when the latter takes delivery of the goods. Thus the bill of lading becomes an essential element in controlling payment procedures in international trade. Most important thing is that the extent of protection provided by the bill of lading is quite enormous (Jan Ramberg, 1979).
The standard format for documentary credit transactions in international trade is ‘The Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits’, or UCP 500 which will ensure more legal status of bills of lading (Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, 1993). .
