선하증권 상환없는 화물인도와 선하증권 이면약관의 효력에 관한 연구

The Effect of the B/L’s Clause of Reverse Side and Delivery of Cargo without Presentation of the Bill of Lading

When a B/L crisis happens, instead of exchanging the Bill of Lading, Letter of guarantee and Surrender B/L are frequently used. In such case, if a dispute regarding the Bill of Llading is generated, it comes into question whether the clause of reverse side can be applied verbatim. A Letter of guarantee is a valid contract of suretyship between the carrier and issuer but is invalid between the carrier and bona fide holder. However, in case of a counterfeit letter of guarantee, the carrier is under tort liability as it is his scienter or gross negligence, and the application of applicable law in the clause of reverse side regarding bill of lading becomes a problem. Clause of reverse side is valid if the Original Bill of Lading which Surrender B/L is based on is issued. On the other hand, in case the Original Bill of Lading is not issued, clause of reverse side is invalid since it is regarded that consensus on the clause of reverse side does not exist in the first place.