UK Electronic Trade Documents Act: problems of reliable system and exclusive control

The Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 is the product of a project from the Law Commission for England and Wales for reform to allow for legal recognition of trade documents such as bills of lading and bills of exchange in electronic form. In the Act, the legal recognition can be achieved if a reliable system is used for exercising an exclusive control on electronic trade documents. The Act, however, leaves a degree of uncertainty of reliability. It adopts an equivalence approach but creates a new concept of exclusive control. It is argued that reliability, as a matter of fact, should not be a decisive factor for determining the legal effect of electronic trade documents. Furthermore, the exclusive control could be a choice of business but should not be a mandatory requirement.