Minimising litigation on presentation of documents under letters of credit: an alternative approach to the uniform customs and practice for documentary credits

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that international trade contracts bear inherently more risk than the trade contracts entered by the parties from the same country. This is due to the differences in business methods and practices used, trade cultures of the parties involved, laws and regulations in the respective jurisdictions. Under these circumstances, it is very important for the seller to have the assurance of that he receives the payment for the goods dispatched and for the buyer to receive the goods what has been ordered. One effective way of having such an assurance is to rely on a letter of credit as an international payment method. But for exporters in particular, this payment method has presented difficulties in meeting the compliance requirements necessary for the payment to be triggered. The UCP 600 published by the International Chamber of Commerce provide the rules that govern letters of credit transactions. At the introduction of the UCP 600, it was aimed to remove wording that could lead to inconsistent application and interpretation, as against the language and style used in the previous version, namely the UCP 500. Highlighting the experiences under UCP 500, the ultimate focus of the revision of the UCP was to minimise the level of litigations that had arisen under the rules provided in the UCP. In several surveys, it has been reported that, nearly 50% of the first presentation for payment under letters of credit are rejected by the banks. This situation implies the fact that the provisions which cover letters of credit transactions are not either clear enough or well understood by the parties involved. Similarly, the decisions made by Courts around the world on issues related to letters of credit have taken different approaches when applying and interpreting the rules. This can clearly be seen by a myriad of controversial judicial standards which have been applied to similar mistakes in documents presented to the bank for payment. This thesis is an investigation into those issues to find out the optimal standards that could be applied to solve the said problems. In doing so, this thesis will strive to ascertain what remedial measures could be taken to address the issues related to examination of documents, the rejection of payment and fraud exception. Key words: International Trade, International Trade Law, Law of Letters of Credit, Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credit 600, Examination of Documents and communicating the decision.