Korean Legal Approach to the Electronic Bill of Lading to Solve the Crisis of the Bill of Lading in Letter of Credit Transactions

Due to the faster ship, cargo arrives at the port of destination before the bill of ladingand this is particularly common in the case of short shipping routes between Korea, China and Japan. Since a bill of lading is a document of title, the carrier cannot deliver cargo to the consignee without the bill of lading. The faster ship is the cause of many problems with the use of a bill of lading and this phenomenon is called “the crisis of the bill of lading”. The crisis of the bill of lading must be solved in a complete way as the bill of lading is indispensible in letter of credit transactions in trade and to realize e-Trade on a global basis, electronic bill of lading must be introduced as the bill of lading is an important document in letter of credit and collection transactions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to streamline the letter of credit transaction by studying the way to introduce the electronic bill of lading in view of Korean law to solve the crisis of bill of lading in letter of credit transactions. This paper suggests that it is necessary to reorganize registration authority in view of neutrality, openness, standardization and operation in letter of credit transactions, in order to operate the Registration Authority of the electronic bill of lading more efficiently.