전자선화증권(電子船貨證券)에 관한 CMI 규칙(規則)의 재조명(再照明)

Reassessment on the CMI Rules for Electronic Bills of Lading

The CMI Rules for Electronic Bills of Lading were based on sound principles that are now reflected in the provisions of the Rotterdam Rules, which provide for the use of electronic equivalents to bills of lading. Services involving bills of lading which exist in electronic form for at least part of their lives, and which use encryption to guarantee integrity and security of these electronic records, are already being offered by a number of carriers, among them APL. The relative success of APL's system demonstrates that the use of a system which embodies the basic ideas and processes underlying the CMI Rules could easily become a practical reality in the near future. The basic principles in the CMI Rules and the Rotterdam Rules adopt a minimum requirements approach and does not flesh out the details of procedures for the use of electronic bills. This is an improvement, as it allows adaptability to future technological developments. Successful electronic bill of lading systems can only be developed in response to customer demand, and carriers are in the best position to gauge this and design systems to cater for it. APL has demonstrated this by creating a system which is tailor-made to its customers' requirements. The CMI Rules were correct in their assumption that electronic bill of lading services should be provided by carriers. They also seem to have anticipated that the switch to the electronic medium would not be sudden and complete, but would require a gradual phasing out of paper documents over a long period of time.