Book Publication: Trade Finance: Technology, Innovation and Documentary Credits by Christopher Hare and Dora Neo (eds)

CBFL is pleased to announce the publication of Trade Finance: Technology, Innovation and Documentary Credits by Oxford University Press in July 2021. The volume is co-edited by Dora Neo, Associate Professor and Director of CBFL at NUS Law, and Christopher Hare, Travers Smith Associate Professor of Corporate and Commercial Law at the University of Oxford. The genesis of this book was the CBFL research symposium entitled “Trade Finance for the 21st Century”, held in Singapore in March 2018.

Trade Finance provides a much-needed re-examination of the relevant legal principles and a study of the challenges posed to current legal structures by technological changes, financial innovation, and international regulation. Arising out of the papers presented at the symposium, Trade Finance for the 21st Century, this collection brings together the perspectives of scholars and practitioners from around the globe focusing on core themes, such as reform and the future role of the UCP, the impact of technology on letters of credit and other forms of trade finance, and the rise of alternative forms of financing.

The book covers three key fields of trade finance, starting with the challenges to traditional trade financing by means of documentary credit. These include issues related to contractual enforceability, the use of “soft clauses”, the doctrine of strict compliance, the fraud exception, the role of the correspondent bank, performance bonds, and conflict of laws problems. The second main area covered by the work is the technological issues and opportunities in trade finance, including electronic bills of exchange, blockchain, and electronically transferable records. The final part of the work considers alternative and complementary trade finance mechanisms such as open account trading, supply-chain financing, the bank payment obligation, and countertrade.

The genesis of this book was a CBFL research symposium, “Trade Finance for the 21st Century”, held at NUS Law in March 2018. The volume contains one chapter each by Sandra Booysen, Deputy Director, CBFL, Dora Neo, Director, CBFL and a few chapters written or co-written by Chris Hare.

Details of the book can be found here

Learn about the symposium here