The Law of Letters of Credit

Book excerpt: The Law of Letters of Credit - Commercial and Standby Credits is the fourth edition of a traditional treatise on a rather narrow legal subject. Letters of credit fall into two categories: (1) commercials, which find use in international sales; and (2) standbys that are a common device in many domestic transactions. As international trade becomes more and more rationalized, the use of commercials has diminished; but the use of the standby has enjoyed something of a boom, for it accomplishes much that security interests, suretyship arrangements, and other credit enhancing devices accomplish and does it with significantly lower transaction costs. Regrettably, the parties using letters of credit often are unaware of the credit's legal significance. This treatise covers the legal features of the commercial and the standby, all in a global context. While it is codified to some extent in the Uniform Commercial Code, the law of letters of credit is largely the law merchant, the ius gentium; and the UCC defers in many respects to international rules. Thus, the treatise deals with those international rules and cites cases from virtually all of the common-law jurisdictions in an effort to provide complete coverage of the field.