Negotiable Cargo Documents: towards harmonisation

From 17 to 21 March 2025, the 46th regular session of the Working Group VI (Non-negotiable Cargo Documents) of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) develops conventions, model laws, guidelines, and other instruments in the field of international trade. The main preparatory work is carried out within the framework of Working Groups. UNCITRAL Working Group VI is currently developing a new instrument on negotiable cargo documents. ) was held in New York. The ICLRC represented by the invited expert Igor Yastrzhembsky participated in the discussion as an observer.

Participants and agenda

The session was attended by delegates from Member States, international organisations and leading experts in the field of transport law. The ICLRC's proposals for a convention text, with detailed justifications, were circulated to delegates through the UNCITRAL Secretariat prior to the session.

The session focused on the following topics:

• The scope of application of the future convention, including geographical criteria

• The distinction between cases of transformation of existing transport documents into negotiable documents and cases of issuance of negotiable documents in addition to existing transport documents

• The rights belonging to the holder of a negotiable document

• The general provisions of the convention as an international treaty and, in particular, the conditions for entry into force.

The ICLRC's proposals    

The ICLRC's expert Igor Yastrzhembsky contributed to the discussion of key aspects of the development of the new document: a number of his proposals were supported by the Working Group and will be included in the final text of the document. These include:

• harmonisation of the names ‘negotiable document’ and ‘negotiable electronic record’, replacing them with the generic term ‘negotiable document’, which covers paper and electronic documents

• the broadest possible definition of the geographical criterion for the applicability of the convention with and a more precise formulation on the non-contradiction of the instrument with existing transport conventions

• clarification of the mechanism for transforming a transport document into a negotiable transport document at a later stage

• the need to ensure that the content of the electronic document remains unchanged from the time of issue and not from the time of its creation (due to possible adjustments prior to issue)

• explicit reference to the possibility that only the holder of the document may claim release of the goods.

Outcome of the session and plans for the future

In general, Working Group VI noted that the text of the convention was in a high state of readiness and could be finalised and adopted at the forthcoming session of UNCITRAL in Vienna in July 2025.