Exploring the Legal Perspectives of Electronic Bill of Lading in India
Keywords:
International trade, bill of lading, electronic bill of lading, evidence, receipt, carriage contract and modern lawAbstract
Sea transportation or carriage by sea is one of the essentials to maintain global economics and international trade. This effective logistics depends on multiple key factors, Bill of lading is one among them. Bill of lading majorly discharges three functions, it is the receipt for carrying goods, evidence for carriage contract and also transfers title from one party to another. Since 11h century, it is evidently practiced. Traditional bill of lading is one of popular bill of lading method, i.e., bill of lading carried out in a physical way using paper. But it involves risk like fraudulent, they are highly time consuming and cost effective. In English law, forged bill is not crime, and it provides no ground for defence. Here, it would be considered as mis delivery. Electronic Bill of lading was practiced in several countries, still lacking globally accepted method of bill of lading, especially in India, regarding to its legal perspective. This article, starts with introduction and interpretations of several defined under various conventions and standards with mentioning minute drawbacks of some, chapter two deals with the history and evolution, functions and elements of bill of lading, chapter three deals, with better alternative features of electronic bill of lading over traditional bill of lading with global standards supporting eBOL, chapter four deals with how India dealing from traditional bill of lading and its legislation to how it is
dealing with electronic bill of lading and its legal provisions. Final chapter deals with conclusion and suggestion part, where India lacking in exploration of legal provisions regards to eBOL and it can be rectified. The prime focus of this paper is about, how lack of legislation in modern law, affects efficient participation of India in maritime sector and shipping industry and how it can be sorted out.
References
United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea 2008, art 1(1). “Contract of carriage” means “a contract in which a carrier, against the payment of freight, undertakes to carry goods from one place to another. The contract shall provide for carriage by sea and may provide for carriage by other modes of transport in addition to the sea carriage”. This definition lacks one of the names contractual parties.
Ibid., art 2(1)
Ibid., art 2(5) “Carrier” means a person that enters into a contract of carriage with a shipper here the carrier not only gets into contract of carriage of the shipper. but also progress the cargo in a BOL
Ibid., art 2(8) “Shipper” means a person that enters into a contract of carriage with a carrier. This definition did not mention about the responsibilities in transportation of goods.
Ibid art 2(10)
Ibid art 2(11)
Ibid., 2(14)
Ibid., 2(15)
Ibid.,2(25)
Supra note 1,2(26)
Supra note 1, 2(27).
Supra note 1, 2(24).
Supra note 1, 2(28).
Supra note 1,2(17)
UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records 2017, art 2.
supra note 1, 2(18).
Ibid., art 2 and10.
Electronic Bills of Lading Rules (CMI) rule 2(2)
Hamburg Rules, 1978, Article 1, states that "bill of lading means a document which evidences a contract of carriage by sea and the taking over or loading of the goods by the carrier, and by which the carrier undertakes to deliver the goods against surrender of the document. A provision in the document that the goods are to be delivered to the order of a named person, or to order, or to bearer, constitutes such an undertaking”.
The Court in B.M. Ltd. v. Woermann-line, 200910defined a B/L as “A written document signed on behalf of the owner of the ship, in which goods are embarked, acknowledging the receipt of the goods and undertaking to deliver them at the end of the voyage, subject to such conditions as may be mentioned in the bill of lading”.
Supra note 15, art 2(4)
Supra note 15, art 2(8)
Supra note 15, art 2(9)
JAN - Hendrik Senekal, The Electronic Bill of Lading: A Legal Perspective, page no 9 (2010)
Chester B. McLAUGHLIN, JR., "The Evolution of the Ocean Bill of Lading" page no 550
Supra note 25, page no 551
Supra note 25, page no 552
Supra note 25, page no 553
Supra note 25, page no 553
Supra note 25, page no 554
Supra note 25, page no 555
(1871, U. S.) 14 Wall. 606.
Kaustubh Kumar, Digitalisation of Bill of Lading, available at: https://www.iiprd.com/digitalisation-of-bill-of-lading/ (last visited on 10/11/2024)
Quentin Schiltz, "Legal compliance of the electronic Bill of Lading", volume 1 International Conference on Digital Transformation in Logistics and Infrastructure page no: 349& 340 (2019)
Ibid., page no 440
K. Alawamleh, "TRADITIONALS BILLS OF LADING V. ELECTRONIC BILLS OF LADINGS: PROS AND CONS AND THEWAY FORWARD," in 64th The IRES International Conference, Oxford, UK, 2017.
C. Nicoll, "BOLERO Makes the Bill of Lading Obsolete," INTERNATIONAL MARITIME LAW, vol. 6, pp. 148-152, 1999.
D. A. Bury, "Electronic bills of lading: a never-ending story," Tul. Mar. LJ, vol. 41, p. 197, 2016.
S. Wunderlich and D. Saive, "The Electronic Bill of Lading," Prieto J., Das A., Ferretti S., Pinto A., Corchado J. (eds) Blockchain and Applications. BLOCKCHAIN 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 1010, pp. 93-100, doi: 0.1007/978-3-030-23813-1_12.
V. Ziakas, "Challenges Regarding the Electronic Bill of Lading (eBoL)," International Journal of Commerce and Finance, vol. 4, no. 2, p. 40, 2018.
Supra note 1, art 8
Supra note 1, art 9
Supra note 1, art 10
Supra note 1, art 35
Supra note 1, art 38
Supra note 1, art 57
Supra note 15, art 8
Supra note 15, art 9
Supra note 15, art 10
Supra note 15, art 11
Supra note 15, art 13
Supra note 15, art 15
Supra note 15, art 16
Supra note 15, art 17
Supra note 15, art 19
Supra note 18, rule 2(2)
Supra note 18, rule 2(3)
Supra note 18, rule 2(5)
Supra note 18 rule 6
Supra note 18 rule 7
Supra note 18 rule 8
Supra 33
The Bills of Lading Bill, (111of2024)2024, section5.
Shipping Corporation of India Ltd. v. C.L. Jain Woollen Mills case. Available at: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/132273/ (last visited on 10/11/2024)
British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. v. Shanmughavilas Cashew Industries. Available at: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1933943/(last visited on 10/11/2024)
Shaw Wallace and Company Limited vs Nepal Food Corporation case available at: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/36568389/ (Last visited on 10/11/2024)
M/S. Rasiklal Kantilal & Co v. Board of Trust of Port of Bombay case available at: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/14391610/ (Last visited on 10/11/2024)
Siddharth Thacker & Ayesha Qazi, Digitalization of Bills of Lading - India's Step in the Right Direction, available at: https://ijpiel.com/index.php/2022/08/24/digitalization-of-bills-of-lading-indias-step-in-the-right-direction/(Last visited on 10/11/2024)
Ibid 57.
