The Straight Bill of Lading

The bill of lading has been the subject of numerous articles, dissertations, and textbooks over the years, and this is hardly surprising. The bill of lading has a fascinating history, it has several functions with roots in both contract and property law, and its issuance may trigger the application of an international convention on the carriage of goods by sea, the Hague-Visby Rules. Whereas most books on the subject deal with the bill of lading in general, this book zooms in on the straight bill of lading and covers the differences (and similarities) with a negotiable (order or bearer) bill of lading.

Michiel Spanjaart is an advocate with Trains & Co in Rotterdam. His practice areas include trade, transport, and insurance. He is a deputy-judge with the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam and an academic fellow with the (NUS) Centre for Maritime Law in Singapore. Michiel teaches maritime law at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and maritime and transport law at the University of Leuven. He obtained his LLB at the University of Utrecht in 1996 and his PhD at the Erasmus University in 2012. His thesis, Vorderingsrechten uit cognossement (’Rights of suit under a bill of lading’), was published by Paris Uitgeverij in 2012. His book Multimodal Transport Law was published by Routledge in 2018.