Real Right

China's Bill of Lading Practice: Bridging Legal Approaches for Global Trade

China's courts are charting a distinctive course on bills of lading, treating them as both contractual and real-right instruments where global practice leans on constructive possession. Our empirical review of 49 judgments shows this dual-attribute pathway dominates, acting as a judicial shock absorber that yields outcomes broadly comparable to international norms. Yet this compensation exacts a toll: reduced efficiency and heightened uncertainty, costs that paper masked. Trade digitalization and the coming NCD Convention expose these frictions, pressing China toward a more possession-aligned judicial stance.