Complying shipping documents under UCP 600

Abstract

This thesis analyses the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP) against the backdrop of the question: ‘what documents must a beneficiary, acting as seller under an international sale of goods carried by sea, present to a bank, and how must he present them, in order for the presentation to be considered compliant?’. It interprets the rules through the answer to this question by looking at national law but also the range of supporting material published by the International Chamber of Commerce. This includes the International Standard Banking Practice, Banking Commission Opinions and Recommendations and DOCDEX decisions. It is unique, because it is one of the few pieces of academic research to place emphasis on these documents and argue that they provide clarification and addition to the UCP. The result of the analysis is a list of proposals for amendments and additions, specifically to UCP but also in some cases to letter of credit law generally. It is these proposals and the arguments for them that are the original contribution to research. Perhaps the most daring submission, never made before in another piece of legal writing, is the proposal that the location of the Fraud Exception to the Autonomy Principle of letters of credit, and indeed all exceptions to the principle, are to be found in the UCP themselves. Where past research has adamantly held that the UCP do not deal with fraud, I submit that they do, and the analysis of the corresponding articles evidence this. The law is stated as at 1 September 2011

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