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REVIEW article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Affairs and Policy
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1493647
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Marine Environmental Protection: Challenges, Solutions and Perspectives View all 32 articles

How to possess an electronic bill of lading as information? A comparative perspective of the legislation on the "possession problem" of electronic bills of lading

Provisionally accepted
Siqi Sun Siqi Sun 1Ran He Ran He 2*
  • 1 Law School, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China
  • 2 Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The possession of the paper B/Ls is the basis of the function of a B/L as a document of title in common law systems and the delivery effect of B/Ls in civil law systems. The "possession problem" of eB/Ls is how to ensure that eB/Ls, as intangible objects, continue to have this basis. In the international level, the MLETR creates the concept of "control" of electronic transferable records as a functional equivalent to possession of paper B/Ls. Although the CMI Rules and the Rotterdam Rules involve control, neither of them makes specific provisions for control. In the national level, there are three solutions to the "possession problem": First, expand the objects of possession to cover eB/Ls, such as the United Kingdom. Second, adopt the same approach as the MLETR, creating a concept of control as a functional equivalent of possession, such as Singapore and Japan, which is in the process of legislating, as well as Abu Dhabi Global Market and other 6 jurisdictions which have directly transplanted Article 11 of the MLETR. Third, establish a central registry system so that possession of eB/Ls does not have to be demonstrated. A typical example is South Korea, where the legislation on eB/Ls preceded the MLETR. The revision of Chinese Maritime Code currently does not pay sufficient attention to the "possession problem" of eB/Ls. The countermeasure should be to first stipulate the delivery effect of paper B/Ls, and then provide a solution to the "possession problem" of eB/Ls.

    Keywords: electronic bills of lading, Possession, Control, MLETR, Functional equivalent, Chinese Maritime Code

    Received: 09 Sep 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sun and He. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ran He, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, Republic of Korea

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