Bills of Lading are transferable documents of title and the transfer of document results in the transfer of the rights incorporated in it. Some of B/L are additionally negotiable. However the legal meaning of these two terms isn’t the same what is not respected in practice. Historically there is also a difference in legal grounds and scope of rights represented and transferred by negotiable bills of lading according to British, American and continental law. An important role in this differentiation was played by the doctrine of privity of contract. This ultimately affects the legal position and scope of the acquired rights of legitimate holders of bills of lading, which are considered to be “negotiable”, including the right to obtain claims from the carrier for cargo damage.

The concept of control over electronic transferable records is the central premise of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Transferable Electronic Records. It indicates the method of determining the party who has the rights embodied in the negotiable electronic record. The purpose of this article is to present the most important issues related to documents and instruments that have a circular function in international maritime trade, and the intention to create a legal framework for them when they take the form of electronic records.

The bill of lading is one of the most important transport documents in maritime trade. Due to certain contract-like features it exhibits, it is sometimes incorrectly identified as a contract for the carriage of cargo by sea. The purpose of this article is to present the features of the bill of lading that exclude the possibility of equating this document with a contract for the carriage of goods by sea. A bill of lading is not a contract, but a unilateral declaration of the carrier’s will, in which the carrier confirms acceptance of the cargo on the ship and undertakes to deliver it to the legitimate recipient at the port of destination. A bill of lading is a transport document for cargo and a commodity security. For this reason, it cannot be said that a bill of lading is merely an evidence of the conclusion of a contract for the carriage of goods by sea.