Bill of Lading Contracts under European National Laws

1 INTRODUCTION 1. It is often said that a bill of lading issued under a voyage charter constitutes “a mere receipt” as long as it remains in the hands of the charterer. This implies that as between the parties to a contract of affreightment the terms of the voyage charter will prevail over those of the bill of lading. Although a bill of lading in the hands of the charterer may still be used as prima facie evidence, its primary role in between the parties to the voyage charter is to facilitate delivery of the goods at destination to the party entitled to take delivery. This follows from the presentation rule which requires that an original copy of the bill of lading needs to be presented to the carrier in order to obtain delivery of the goods. It now seems to be universally accepted that this presentation rule applies not only to easily transferable bills of lading made out to order or to bearer, but also to ‘straight’ bills of lading, i.e. those in which the consignee is a named party. [etc.]

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