The shipping document that serves at once as receipt for the goods, evidence of the contract of carriage and document of title.
The bill of lading performs three functions at once, and it is their combination that makes it the central instrument of seaborne trade. It is first a receipt, by which the carrier acknowledges taking goods into its charge in a described condition; it is next evidence of the contract of carriage and of the terms governing it; and it is finally a document of title, so that its transfer passes the right to dispose of the goods while they are at sea. A bill is called clean when it bears no reservation as to the apparent condition of the goods, and claused otherwise, a distinction on which the bank's acceptance of the documentary credit depends. For the insurer, the bill decides two things: who has title to sue, and therefore whom the insurer will pursue in recovery after payment, and what limits of liability the carrier can invoke. Delivery without presentation of an original, a common practice when the ship arrives ahead of the documents, is one of the heaviest exposures carried by protection and indemnity clubs, because it deprives the lawful holder of its goods.
The United Kingdom's Electronic Trade Documents Act, in force since September 20, 2023, gave the electronic bill of lading the same legal standing as paper under English law, which governs a large share of the world's carriage contracts; UNCITRAL's MLETR model law, adopted in 2017, had opened the way without being enacted at the time by any major maritime law jurisdiction.
B/L, connaissement maritime