신용장의 추상성과 관련한 대법원판례에 대한 평석

Abstract

character of letter of credit, validity of nondocumentary condition, duty of applicant of letter of credit, compliance standard of letter of credit, letter of credit Letter of Credit has been used for payment device in International business transactions. The commercial effectiveness of letter of credit mainly depends on their abstract nature. This means that letter of credit transaction deals with documents, not goods. The principle of abstraction gives a lot of convenience for the parties engaged in letter of credit transaction. However, this principle also result in several problems yet clearly unsolved. Among them, three problems are dominant and has a important mwaning to trade community. One of them is whether the applicant of letter of credit assumes the duty to examine the documents and must notify the defects to issuing bank. Recent Korean Supreme court's decision(en banc) solved this problem. The korean Supreme Court denied the duty of applicant. This decision employs minority view in past controversies among commentators. Second problem is the validity of non-documentary condition. The Supreme Court confirm the validity of non-documentary condition in certain circumstances. However, the Court;s decision cannot be welcomed in the light of abstraction of letter of credit. The third problem is the standard of compliance between the documents and letter of credit. The Court adopts the strict compliance rule with minor variances. All these problems should be solved towards keeping the abstract nature of letter of credit.