Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
Bills of lading in an electronic age
Nicholas Gaskell *
I. INTRODUCTION
Changes are taking place in the way in which modern bills of lading are being produced, in part as a result of the increasing use of electronic resources. This article aims to look at some of these changes affecting contracts for the carriage of goods by sea, by looking at modern web portals, remote printing and signing of original bills, the latest challenger to Bolero (the ESS-Databridge™) and P&I Club insurance cover. It concludes by considering the ways in which the Rotterdam Rules1 deal with e-commerce. Following the adoption of the new Rules, it might be thought that reference should be made only to “transport documents” or “transport records”, but for the moment the paper bill of lading still survives as a key trade document.
II. THE BILL OF LADING AS A PAPER DOCUMENT
Before considering electronic developments, I will consider very briefly (by way of context) some features of the traditional paper bill of lading.
* Professor of Maritime and Commercial Law, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland; formerly David Jackson Professor of Maritime and Commercial Law, Institute of Maritime Law, University of Southampton. This article is an adapted version of a contribution to J Schelin (ed), General Trends in Maritime and Transport Law 1929–2009 (Axel Ax:son Johnson Institute of Maritime Law, University of Stockholm, 2009), the proceedings of the XI Hässelby Colloquium in honour of the 80th birthday of Hugo Tiberg.
1. United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea 2008. See also infra, Part VIII.
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