Legal Challenges In International Commercial Payments With Special Reference To Letters Of Credit In The Digital Economy
Jenifer Theresa Antony SOct 15, 202610.5281/zenodo.23402007pp. 608–62215 pages
International commercial payments make the world go round, and Letters of Credit (LCs) are at the heart of it all, trusted by buyers and sellers everywhere. They’ve been the gold standard for minimizing risk in global trade, mostly thanks to the rules laid out in UCP 600. But times are changing fast. As trade moves online, we’re seeing everything shift: electronic documents, blockchain, fintech apps, digital banks. These new tools are great, but they’re also bringing a whole bunch of legal headaches, think questions about how to validate electronic documents, worries about authentication, cybersecurity, privacy, fraud, cross-border disputes, and keeping up with a patchwork of regulations. This study dives into the legal maze surrounding Letters of Credit in today’s digital economy, focusing on how international payments work now. It takes a hard look at big legal frameworks like UCP 600 and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR), plus Indian laws such as the Information Technology Act, FEMA, and various banking rules. The research spots some pretty serious gaps, showing that the current laws aren’t quite keeping pace with new digital risks. In the end, it calls for smarter regulations and fresh policies, so we can better control digital LCs, resolve legal uncertainties across borders, and make international trade safer, faster, and more reliable. All that, with the goal of protecting the integrity of global payments, even as technology keeps changing the game.