Trade Finance: Technology, Innovation and Documentary Credits

Trade Finance provides a much-needed re-examination of the relevant legal principles and a study of the challenges posed to current legal structures by technological changes, financial innovation, and international regulation. Arising out of the papers presented at the symposium, Trade Finance for the 21st Century, this collection brings together the perspectives of scholars and practitioners from around the globe focusing on core themes, such as reform and the future role of the UCP, the impact of technology on letters of credit and other forms of trade finance, and the rise of alternative forms of financing.

The book covers three key fields of trade finance, starting with the challenges to traditional trade financing by means of documentary credit. These include issues related to contractual enforceability, the use of "soft clauses", the doctrine of strict compliance, the fraud exception, the role of the correspondent bank, performance bonds, and conflict of laws problems. The second main area covered by the work is the technological issues and opportunities in trade finance, including electronic bills of exchange, blockchain, and electronically transferable records. The final part of the work considers alternative and complementary trade finance mechanisms such as open account trading, supply-chain financing, the bank payment obligation, and countertrade.

Christopher Hare, Travers Smith Associate Professor of Corporate and Commercial Law, University of Oxford,Dora Neo, Director, Centre for Banking & Finance Law, National University of Singapore

Christopher Hare is the Travers Smith Associate Professor of Corporate and Commercial Law, Oxford University and a Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. He has degrees from Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard Law School and, after a short period practising as a barrister from 3 Verulam Buildings, he held teaching posts at Jesus College, Cambridge University and the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Dora Neo is the founding Director of the Centre for Banking & Finance Law (CBFL) and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS). She teaches and publishes in the areas of banking and finance, contract law, and international economic law. She is a graduate of Oxford and Harvard universities.