La fraude du bénéficiaire d'un crédit documentaire irrévocable: Tendances actuelles et futures

MARC LACOURSIÈRE

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, international commercial practices have become more comprehensive, and are gradually becoming more uniform. The use of letters of credit as a form of payment on international contracts has been affected by these developments. Due to the number transactions involving letters of credit world-wide, instances of fraud are likely unavoidable. For this reason, it is necessary to determine what the rights of a de-frauded purchaser are. It is universally recognized that the documents presented as payment must correspond exactly to those stipulated in the bank's letter of credit, this latter being separate from the contract of sale. Instances of fraud can be reduced by the scrupulous examination of such documents. A number of problems remain, and the first obstacle is the divergence of the principles and the case-law on certain critical issues, for instance, where there are fraudulent misrepresentations in the contract of sale. Although Canadian common law and civil law courts recognize this as a legal issue, other jurisdictions do not share this perspective; differences of opinion are, however, becoming less marked. The second issue is different in kind, namely, the means of controlling fraud in an age of information technology. Electronically generated letters of credit provide solutions for some existing problems, but give rise to new puzzles of their own.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Citation: (1995) 53(2) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 201.
Copyright © 1995. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review.
All rights reserved.