Shipping documents and electronic data interchange

This paper concentrates upon the legal implications of electronic bills of lading. Having outlined the practicalities of the creation and use of paper bills and other shipping documents it deals with the evolution of EDI documents in the shipping industry. It then suggests a solution to the perennial problem of authentication of such documents. International trade would be severely and adversely affected by their use if EDI bills were not acceptable security to banks and could not be used as transferable documents of title. The parties to international contracts of carriage would be subject to uncertainty as to their rights and obligations if the international treaties governing such contracts were not applicable to such bills. The paper discusses these problems by reference to published proposals which tackles some of them and to the author's original solutions in respect of others. It is clear that further law reform is necessary to resolve the problems but that the use of EDI bills of lading will be advantageous to those involved in international trade.