7.1.1 What is a Bill of Lading？海运提单是什么？
A bill of lading is a document issued by a carrier or its agent to acknowledge receipt of cargo for shipment.However,more than that,it must be transferrable and serve three functions:
(1)It is a receipt for the goods.The carrier acknowledges that it has received the goods and will accept responsibility for the goods until they reach their port of destination.
(2)It is a contract of carriage.The carrier agrees with the shipper—either you or the importer,depending on the Incoterms rule employed,to transport the goods from one port to another for a given amount of money.It contains or evidences the terms of contract of carriage.
(3)It is a document of title.Representing legal ownership of the goods,it can be transferred to represent the transference of ownership of the goods.It is also the document that the carrier needs to authorize the release of the goods at the port of destination.
According to various treaties,conventions or practices on marine cargo transport,these are three commonly acknowledged criteria for identifying a B/L.A document that has fulfilled all the three roles is almost certainly a B/L,but one with any of the three roles absent rarely is.UCP 600 defines a B/L as the transport document used only for port-to-port sea shipments,rather than one for air or land shipments.Additionally,for shipment delivered by more than one mode of transport,the shipping document is called a multimodal bill of lading or a combined bill of lading.It could be issued as a title document or one that is not.