ABSTRACT
This chapter aims at exploring the nature of documentary duties within the context of contracts concluded on shipment terms. It first identifies the seller's documentary duties, and then establishes the nature of breaches of documentary duty which amount to infringements of conditions that entitle buyers to terminate the contract. The buyer will never be in the same position again, as payment is yet to be made and will happen only in the case of documentary compliance. If the sales contract provides for cash against documents as the payment method, whereby the buyer pays cash vis-a-vis the production of documents by the seller, the contract itself will be a crucial means for the identification of the seller's documentary duties. The application of such rationale on a large scale would have severe consequences for the legal assessment of a seller's documentary performance within the context of contracts concluded on shipment terms.
