Bank Guarantees in International Trade is a comprehensive study of the legal and practical aspects and implications of independent (first demand) guarantees and standby letters of credit. It serves to broaden the understanding of the law on the subject of bank guarantees, while placing marked emphasis upon the practical issues which can arise in the daily functioning of these legal instruments.
Bertrams shows that, in all essentials, the American standby letter of credit and the European independent guarantee developed simultaneously and represent, conceptually and legally, the same device. However, developments throughout the 1980s and 1990s and into the new century particularly certain initiatives of the International Chamber of Commerce ((URDG) and the American Institute of International Banking Law and Practice (ISP98), along with a steady flow of case law and a proliferation of legal writing continue to affect practice in the field. Bertrams examines all this material in detail in this incomparable book, now in an updated revised third edition.
1. Introduction. 2. Overview. 3. Types of Guarantee. 4. Conditions of Payment (Payment Mechanism). 5. Legal Nature. 6. Parties to the Underlying Relationship. 7. Role and Position of the Bank Issuing Guarantees as a Financial Service. 8. Drafting and Clauses. 9. Relationship between Account Party ¿ First Instructing Bank ¿ Second Issuing Bank. Introduction and Structure 10. Relationship between Account Party ¿ Bank (Direct Guarantee). 11. Relationship between Account Party ¿ First Instructing Bank ¿ Second Issuing Bank (Indirect Guarantee). Counter-Guarantee. 12 Other Aspects of the Guarantee. 13 The Demand for Payment. 14 The Concept of Fraud. 15 Fraud and the Position of the Bank. 16 Fraud and Restraining Orders. 17 Conservatory Attachment and Freezing Orders. 18 Jurisdiction and Applicable law. 19 Bank Guarantees and Construction Contracts