The article is designed to outline the main issues associated with using transport
documents in the documentary credit transactions and, in particular, bills
of lading: references will be made to the interpretation of the definition of «clean
bill of lading» under the UCP 600 rules and to the most common discrepancies
and non-documentary conditions encountered by banks during the documents’
examination.
After a brief analysis of the main features of letters of credit and the rules governing
the documentary credit, the paper mainly examines the criteria that banks
should follow for identifying conforming documents under a letter of credit, focusing
on the liability of the banks involved in the transaction.
In such a perspective, this study provides an overview of the approaches followed
by the Courts on the standard for documents’ examination to be adopted
by banks in determining «a complying presentation», tracing the development
of the strict compliance doctrine. In this scenario, the article also addresses the
specific issue of the «fraud exception», which affects the autonomy principle of
the letter of credit, in the light of the interpretation of the Courts.