Compliance of Electronic Bill of Lading Regulation in Korea with Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records

Purpose – The UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (Model Law) is based on the principles of non-discrimination against the use of electronic means, functional equivalence, and technology neutrality underpinning all UNCITRAL texts on electronic commerce. Investigating the disagreements between the Model Law and the Koran Commercial Act (KC Act), including the B/L Regulation, and suggesting the revision of the KC Act including the B/L Regulation, could be a valuable study. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the harmonization of Korean legislation regarding electronic bill of lading in compliance with the Model Law.

Design/methodology – The Model Law is flexible to accommodate the use of all technologies and models, such as registries, tokens, and distributed ledgers: that is, blockchain. In 2007, the KC Act was revised to regulate electronic bills of lading to promote the widespread legal use of electronic bills of lading. In addition, The Regulation on Implementation of the Provisions of the Commercial Act Regarding Electronic Bills of Lading (the B/L Regulation) was enacted to regulate the detailed procedures in using electronic bills of lading in 2008. This paper employs a legal analysis by which this paper does find differences between two rules in light of technology neutrality and global standard of electronic bills of lading model.

Findings – The main findings are as follows: i) the Korean registry agency has characteristics of a closed system. ii) The KC Act has no provision regarding control. iii) The KC Act discriminates other electronic bills of lading on the ground that it was issued or used abroad. Moreover, this study does comprehensive analysis of Korean Acts in comparison with the Model Law and, in particular, this study analyzes the differences between the KC Act and the Model Law by comparing article by article in view of the harmonization of the two rules.

Originality/value – The subject of previous several studies was draft provisions on Electronic Transferable Records before completion of the Model Law; thus, these studies did not take into consideration the character of the Model Law as the Model Law was chosen at the final stage of legislation. This study is aimed at the final version of the Model Law. So, this study is meaningful by finding the suggestion and directions for the Korean government to revise the KC Act and the B/L Regulation in line with the Model Law.