Study On The Legal Issues Of Electronic Bills Of Lading On The Blockchain

The issuance of transport documents constitutes the legal core of trade.In particular,carriage of goods by sea is substantially based on bills of lading(B/L).Traditionally,the B/L has three functions:(1)its function is to confirm that the goods have been delivered on board;(2)it proves the contract of carriage between the shipper and carrier;and(3)it is a “document of title”.With the acceleration of international trade and the increase of commercial complexity,the physical movement of the original bill of lading between the trading parties has not kept pace with the movement of goods,resulting in problems such as the ruin of perishable goods and the carrier’s releasing goods without presentation of the original B/L.The commercial practice of electronic bills of lading(e BL)replacing paper bill of lading(p BL)began as early as 1983,but development of an electronic alternative has been painfully slow.In recent years Distributed Ledger Technology(DLT),often referred to as "Blockchain",has been promoted as the way forward in the digitisation of international trade.Nowadays,blockchain technology can solve many problems in the process of e BL,such as the guarantee of singularity,the exclusive control and the realization of B/L function,with its concept of Smart Contract and the techniques of timestamping and hashing.However,the obstacles to development is not a technical problem,but the disunity of legal status of e BL and the uncertainty over the legal status of the electronic transferable records.Actually,The 1978 United Nations Convention for the Carrier of Goods by Sea(Hamburg Rules)has already allowed the signing of bills by electronic means.Subsequently,the Committee Maritime International(CMI),the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law(UNCITRAL)and the International Chamber of Commerce(ICC)all tried to promote the legal protection by means of model law or revision of established trade practices,bringing about the spread of the principle of technology neutrality and the principle of functional equivalence.This thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter analyzes the process of e BL on the basis of introducing the practical problems of traditional p BL,and puts forward the idea of applying blockchain technology to B/L.The second and third chapters are the main parts of the thesis.These two chapters deeply analyze the realization of the principle of functional equivalence by analyzing the specific scenes namely delivery,transferring and pledge of B/L as a "document of title" in the trade process,demonstrating how to realize "document of title" in the operation of e BL,discussing the legal obstacle of the establishment of legal status of e BL.As a conclusion,Chapter IV emphasizes the important value of the promulgation of the model law and the revision of international trade practices by international organizations to the institutionalization of e BL on the blockchain and refers Bahrain’s domestic law,which takes reference to UNCITRAL’s Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records(MLETR),the relevant provisions of Uniform Commercial Code(UCC),and the legislative progress of Chinese Maritime Law to give certain suggestions of China’s future legislation.Based on the reality of international trade and the latest practice of the shipping industry,this thesis focuses on the examining of B/L system,especially the legal function of "document of title",and focuses on the analysis and investigation of the promotion of the application of blockchain technology to the development of legal theories related to B/L,so as to gradually realize the legal protection of e BL in both international law and domestic legislation,In order to solve the chronic problems of the traditional B/L system and promote the rapid development of e BL or the shipping industry.