Illegal activity in the issuance of negotiable documents in the carriage of goods by sea – do the existing legal regimes provide sufficient protection for the participants?

Abstract: In the carriage of goods by sea most of the times there are three parties involved - the carrier, the shipper and the consignee. Due to the fact that more often than not they are unrelated to each other, such a relationship presupposes the use of fraudulently issued bills of lading. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the existing legal regimes governing the use of bills of lading and the ways they restrict that malpractice. The author tries to answer the question whether they provide suffcient protection to the innocent participants in the carriage contract and what could be done in order to improve the situation of those using these negotiable instruments.