1. Lickbarrow v Masons 1794 5 T.R. 683
  2. Kozolchyk, Boris "Evolution of the Ocean Bill of Lading from a Banking Law Perspective" Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 1992 23 at 165
  3. ibid at 167-171
  4. ibid at 173: With the enactment of the Uniform Bill of Lading and the Pomerene Acts in the United States, if a Bill of Lading was issued by a carrier or its agent, the carrier was liable for damages, (a) to the owner of the goods covered by a straight Bill of Lading; or (b) to the holder of an order bill who gave value in good faith and relied on the description of goods on the date shown.
  5. ibid at 172
  6. ibid at 175
  7. 'no one can convey what he does not have.'
  8. 1851 10 CB 665 ( Court of Common Please )
  9. The South African Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1 of 1986 ( COGSA ): Section 1 makes the Hague-Visby rules mandatory.
  10. Kozolchyk (1992) defines Merchantability with reference to how easily resaleable goods are, thus the Bill of Lading should allow for quick and low cost possession of marketable goods (at 177).
  11. Kozolchyk, Boris "Evolution of the Ocean Bill of Lading from a Banking Law Perspective" Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 1992 23 at 163 and 177.
  12. ibid at 163
  13. Faber, Diana The Use of EDI in International Trade: Implications for Traders, Banks, Carriers and Insurers, Paper delivered at 10th BILETA Conference on Electronic Communications, Glasgow 1995
  14. Kozolchyk, Boris "Evolution of the Ocean Bill of Lading from a Banking Law Perspective" Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 1992 23 at 197
  15. ibid at 212
  16. Myburgh, Paul "Bits, Bytes and Bills of Lading: EDI and New Zealand Maritime Law", New Zealand Law Journal, September 1993 at 324; states that in a survey conducted in June 1993 with respect to the New Zealand Shipping industry, 72,7% of the respondents reported problems arising out of delayed or lost shipping documents.
  17. Kozolchyk 1992 at 198
  18. See Faber, Diana "Electronic Bills of Lading" Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, May 1996 at 232; Myburgh, Paul "Bits, Bytes and Bills of Lading: EDI and New Zealand Maritime Law", New Zealand Law Journal, September 1993 at 325; Kozolchyk, Boris "Evolution of the Ocean Bill of Lading from a Banking Law Perspective", Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 1992 23 at 216: and Kelly, Richard Brett "The CMI Charts a Course on the Sea of Electronic Data Interchange: Rules for Electronic Bills of Lading", Tulane Maritime Law Journal , Spring 1992
  19. Kozolchyk 1992 at 221
  20. Myburgh (1993 at 324) points out that the recent decision by the United States Department of Defence to replace paper bills of lading and freight forwarding receipts with EDI has resulted in savings of some $17 million, and removed the need to produce an annual stack of paper bills four times the height of the Empire State Building
  21. xxii The Comite Maritime International ( CMI ) have developed a set of rules in order to facilitate commercial sea trade via EDI. Rule 1 states that the rules have no effect by their mere existence. In order to be bound the parties must agree contractually that the rules are applicable to their contract.
  22. Freibrun, Eric S, Electronic Data Interchange and the Law 1993
  23. Richard Hill and Ian Walden, The Draft UNCITRAL Model Law for Electronic Commerce: issues and solutions ( Documrnt available at Error! Bookmark not defined. )
  24. Kelly, Richard Brett "The CMI Charts a Course on the Sea of Electronic Data Interchange: Rules for Electronic Bills of Lading", Tulane Maritime Law Journal 1992 16 at 355
  25. Rule 4(d)
  26. Article 5
  27. Freibrun, Eric S, Electronic Data Interchange and the Law 1993
  28. Livermore, John and Euarjai, Krailerk "Electronic Bills Of Lading, A Progress Report" Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 1997 28 at 56
  29. Article 6 States that:
    Where a rule of law requires a signature or provides for certain consequences in the absence of a signature, that rule shall be satisfied in relation to a data message if:
  1. The method is used to identify the originator of the data message and to indicate the originators approval of the information contained therein; and
  2. That method is reliable as was appropriate for which the data message was generated or communicated, in light of all the circumstances, including any agreement between the originator and the addressee of the data message.
  1. Freibrun, Eric S, Electronic Data Interchange and the Law 1993
  2. Livermore, John and Euarjai, Krailerk "Electronic Bills Of Lading, A Progress Report" Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 1997 28 at 56
  3. Chandler, George "Electronic Transmission of Bills of Lading" Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 1989 20 at 577; points out that certain acts, including the Harter Act , US COGSA as well as the Hague rules refer to the issuing of "documents".
  4. In a perfect system a company's inventory system could automatically determine the need for additional parts and electronically transmit that need to the suppliers automated system, which would then ship the parts. No human need interact with this system other than to monitor it, nor would paper need to be generated. The three companies involved: the user, the supplier and the carrier would automatically process and record each step, generating the necessary credits and debits and changes in inventory.
    Systems such as this, or very close to it have been devised by the major automotive industries of the world.
    See Chandler, George Maritime Electronic Commerce for the Twenty-First Century. Paper delivered at the centenary of the Comite Maritime International 1997 at 3
  5. See Myburgh, Paul "Bits, Bytes and Bills of Lading, New Zealand Law Journal, September 1993 at 326-327; and Kelly, Richard Brett "The CMI Charts a Course on the Sea of Electronic Data Interchange: Rules for Electronic Bills of Lading" Tulane Maritime Law Journal 1992 16 at 358-359
  6. Rule 3(d) states that: "Unless otherwise agreed a recipient is not authorised to act on a transmission unless he has sent confirmation."
  7. Myburgh, Paul "Bits, Bytes and Bills of Lading: EDI and New Zealand Maritime Law", New Zealand Law Journal, September 1993 at 326, states that one can apply the reasoning of the English courts in Entores v Miles Far East Corporation (1955) 2 QB 327 and Brinkibon Ltd v Stahag Stahl GnbH (1983) 2 AC 34 which applied the general rule to contracts concluded by telegraph and telex respectively.
  8. Kelly, Richard Brett "The CMI Charts a Course on the Sea of Electronic Data Interchange: Rules for Electronic Bills of Lading" Tulane Maritime Law Journal 1992 16 at 360
  9. 1983 2 AC 34 at 42B-E
  10. Faber, Diana "Electronic Bills of Lading" Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, May 1996 at 236 refers to a number of such cases.
  11. See discussion on development of bill of lading at XX above
  12. Chandler, George Maritime Electronic Commerce for the Twenty-First Century. Paper delivered at the centenary of the Comite Maritime International 1997 at 13
  13. See Kozolchyk, Boris "Evolution of the Ocean Bill of Lading from a Banking Law Perspective" 1992 at 227-230 and Chandler, George Maritime Electronic Commerce for the Twenty-First Century. Paper delivered at the centenary of the Comite Maritime International at 9-10
  14. See Kozolchyk, Boris "Evolution of the Ocean Bill of Lading from a Banking Law Perspective" 1992 at 229-241 and Chandler, George Maritime Electronic Commerce for the Twenty-First Century. Paper delivered at the centenary of the Comite Maritime International 1997 at 19-33, Myburgh, Paul; "Bits, Bytes and Bills of Lading: EDI and New Zealand Maritime Law", New Zealand Law Journal September 1993 at 325-326 and, Faber, Diana "Electronic Bills of Lading" Lloyds Maritime and Commercial law Quarterly, May 1996 at 239-240
  15. The UNCITRAL Model Law however closely follows the CMI Rules
  16. xlvi Myburgh, Paul "Bits, Bytes and Bills of Lading: EDI and New Zealand Maritime Law", New Zealand Law Journal, September 1993 at 328
  17. See Bolero (infra)
  18. In 1987 the United nations, through the Economic Commission for Europe , launched EDI for Administration, Commerce and Trade ( EDIFACT ) in an attempt to standardise EDI messaging. It appears that this format will become the world standard, especially with multi-national firms such as General Motors announcing that they will be moving from ASC X12, ( Proprietary EDI software used extensively in the United States ) to UN/EDIFACT.
  19. xlix See Kelly, Richard Brett "The CMI Charts a Course on the Sea of Electronic Data Interchange: Rules for Electronic Bills of Lading ", Tulane Maritime Law Journal 16 1992 at 360-366; Faber, Diana The Use of EDI in International Trade: Implications for Traders, Banks, Carriers and Insurers, Paper delivered at 10th BILETA Conference on Electronic Communications, Glasgow 1995 at 1-2; and Kozolchyk, Boris "Evolution of the Ocean Bill of Lading from a Banking Law Perspective" 1992 23 at 230-237
  20. Chandler, George "The Electronic Transfer of Bills of Lading" Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 20 1989 at 574
  21. CMI Rule 9(c )
  22. lii CMI rule 10(d)
  23. Faber, Diana "Electronic Bills of Lading" Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, May 1996 at 237
  24. Faber, Diana "Electronic Bills of Lading" Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, May 1996 at 242-243 and Holford, Mark The Paper Bill of lading Unravels with Bolero 1996
  25. Reprinted from EDI Insider, Volume 1, Issue 1. 1996 ©Washington Publishing Company, 21