A Comparative Study of The Legal Requirements on the Electronic Trade Documents under Uniform Commercial Code, Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records and Electronic Trade Documents Act: With Emphasis on Shipping Documents

Although the development of the use of information technology in commercial transactions especially in international type, is economically favorable, but it has not been widely accepted by stakeholders. This is also true regarding the electronic substitutes for possessable trade documents, such as bills of lading and insurance policies. One reason for such a phenomenon is that, these substitutes, legally do not have the special functions of their paper counterparts; due to the lack of specific requirements regarding their formation and the non-regulation of the relationship between "possession" and "electronic trade documents". Therefore, it is essential to eliminate such an obstacle. Consequently, this article, with a different method from other researches that have only examined the legal aspects of a certain type of electronic trade documents and also with an analytical and comparative approach, examines the existing legal solutions to equate functions of electronic substitutes with paper documents and the requirements that are necessary to implement each of these solutions. The result of such an analysis is that there are two main solutions in this regard: First, determining the requirements for the formation of electronic trade documents and equating the "control" of electronic trade documents with the "possession" of paper trade documents. Second, Identifying the electronic substitutes as possessable objects, provided that certain preconditions have been met. Finally, Due to the lack of appropriate regulations in Iran's legal system and based on the findings of this article; a suitable regulatory framework has been proposed.