A Principled Exception to the Strict Complicance Rule in Trilateral Letter of Credit Transactions

Abstract:     
Letter of credit law wisely emphasizes the need for a strict compliance rule when the beneficiary of a letter of credit presents documents to the issuer. Any other rule, especially a rule of substantial compliance, would render the issuer's document checkers adjusters charged with commercial duties and the need to make commercial judgments. The strict rule, the, is necessary for the letter of credit to work at the banking house. When the issuer sends the documents to the applicant, however, the exigencies of quick document examination without resort to commercial inquiry outside the banking house subside. Applicants are commercial parties. They know whether deviation from the strict standard is commercially unacceptable. This article argues, then, that Canadian courts should adopt a bifurcated approach: a strict standard at the banking house but a substantial standard at the applicant's shop.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 20

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