The Book “International Trade and Carriage of Goods by Sea – Texts, Cases, and Materials”

The scarcity of books on international trade and international carriage of goods that not only highlight global principles but reflect the peculiarities of the local operating environment and laws remains a source of concern to tertiary institutions, traders, bankers, legal practitioners, and the courts. This book has provided the much-desired, in-depth research and analysis of the legal, commercial, and operational issues related to international carriage of goods from domestic and international perspectives. Its appeal lies in the global approach that is notrestricted to the legal profession or the judiciary but encompasses other sectors involved in international trade and cross-border carriage of goods by sea, including the financing, import and export sectors.

Cross-border trade and carriage of goods comprises multiple phases that commence well before loading goods on a vessel for shipment. These phases include the sale, pre-shipment activities, shipment, delivery, and post-delivery phases. Multiple and different actors must work together in an orchestrated sequence to satisfy all the interests involved in the transaction, supply chain and transportation phases. This nearly 600-page book, consisting of 9 chapters covers the essential contracts between multiple parties that come into play prior to the actual carriage of goods, the transportation of goods by sea and delivery, the allocation of responsibilities and risks among parties, and liabilities arising therefrom. Mercantile and financing topics and processes such as trade terms for imports and exports, documentary credits system, logistics and transportation that merchants often find complicated and confounding are presented in a simple manner that is readable and rich in content. It examines and explores, in detail, the interrelationship between the crucial parties, including risks, obligations, rights and potential liabilities for the seller, buyer, consignee or endorsee, banks, carrier and other related parties. Concentration is on bill of lading carriage, though charterparty is elaborated in the context of charterparty terms that impact on bill of lading carriage.

The book contains in-depth explanations and analysis of the procedures, guidelines, roles, and risks associated with documentary credits payment system. It unravels the complexity of documentary credits for bankers, merchants, regulators, lawyers, and courts and includes illustrations of actual transactions and disputes. Parties and their advisors are armed with the skills required to undertake informed assessments of legal risks involved in all the phases of cross-border sales and transportation of goods. Reflecting the international nature of financing cross-border sales and carriage of goods, issues related thereto are approached from international and domestic perspectives and demonstrated with applicable foreign and domestic case law. The book relies heavily on case law and contains extensive texts and materials that the reader will find helpful for research, practice or studies.

Illustrations, standard forms and relatable diagrams are used to explain concepts, process flow and principles. The reference to several Nigerian and foreign judicial precedence to illustrate legal principles and industry practices recommends this book to not only the judiciary but as a valuable tool to researchers, tertiary institutions, importers, exporters, bankers and transaction advisers within and outside Nigeria. It is my hope that the exposition in this book on the unresolved issues intrinsic to international carriage of goods will lead to enhanced clarity and required reforms in the legal, trade and economic sectors that will foster market confidence, competitive services, growth of the shipping sector and a reasonable degree of predictability in dispute settlement.