Every country in the world engages in international trade, at times as an importer and at others as an exporter. This import-export activity involves various assets and activities, necessitating financial exchanges and bank accounts. This activity is not limited to states alone but extends to individuals and corporations. Each country strives to encourage others to deal with it or its citizens to increase its wealth and enrich its economy. Without trade, the science of economics would not have emerged, as both are two sides of the same coin. Their impact on relations between nations and its direct reflection on their peoples is undeniable. Trade is twofold: domestic and foreign. The former occurs within the territory of a specific country, while the latter transcends these borders, taking place between two or more countries and encompassing all exchanges of goods and services among nations. Economic development has not been limited to this but has extended to the exchange of investments and the transfer of capital, which has necessitated the creation of new types of international contracts, even if their parties are not states, as will be shown later.

It can be said that two systems govern international trade. The first is based on the principle of freedom of trade and industry as a general rule, despite some exceptions. However, these exceptions do not make foreign trade a privilege or a monopoly of the state. Instead, it sometimes provides guarantees for those who deal with its nationals from other countries by creating institutions and companies whose mission is to achieve the prosperity of this trade and provide guarantees against political, monetary, and commercial risks. The government sometimes allows its nationals to place its official label on certain national products as a guarantee of their quality and to encourage investors among its citizens, especially since foreign trade in these countries is subject to state protection, supervision, and control.

The second system was represented by the former Soviet Union, where the state monopolized this trade and conducted it through institutions formed within the state's public apparatus, enjoying legal personality, making trade an economic tributary. As for developing countries, they try as much as possible to supervise this trade because it increases the investment of their wealth in exchange for other products and as a means of obtaining foreign currency. After the end of World War II and the establishment of the United Nations, it was noted that one of the important issues to be developed in the post-war world was international trade. A comprehensive legal regulation or a charter for the principles of international trade should be established to ensure respect for the principle of commercial freedom by all countries. A charter to this effect was signed in Havana in 1947, but it did not come into existence. Then, in the same year in Geneva, countries reached the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an acronym for General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It establishes a code of conduct in the field of international trade that countries adhere to, based on the principle known as the 'most-favored-nation' clause. If a country grants a privilege or a facility, it is obliged to grant that privilege to all signatory countries of the agreement.

In 1966, the United Nations General Assembly established the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, known as UNCITRAL. Its mission is to coordinate the current conflicting rules in international trade. The commission prepared a convention on contracts for the international sale of goods, which was approved by the United Nations conference held in Vienna from March 10 to April 1980. The United Nations called for the establishment of a new economic order, the most prominent feature of which is the regulation of the activities of giant multinational enterprises and the regulation of technology transfer.

Many countries around the world have ratified this convention, keeping in mind the general objectives of the resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in its special session on the establishment of a new international economic order. The development of international trade on the basis of equality and mutual benefit is an important element in promoting friendly relations between states. The adoption of uniform rules governing contracts for the international sale of goods, taking into account different social, economic, and legal systems, would contribute to the removal of legal barriers in international trade and promote its development. Subsequently, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) emerged to complete this role and create uniform rules for the regulation of international sales contracts, which are often conducted through documentary credits. More than twenty-five member countries of the ICC, through their delegates who acted as an advisory body, dealt with the proposals of member countries regarding the revision of the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP) bulletin. Nearly four hundred members of the ICC's technology committee submitted proposals closely related to amending the UCP texts, in addition to the national committees of the ICC from various countries, which played an effective role in unifying their members' observations and producing the UCP 600, which has a significant and influential role in developing and promoting international and global trade among nations.

The International Chamber of Commerce, established in 1919, made one of its main objectives the facilitation of international trade flow among the countries of the world, at a time when the economic protectionist policies of some countries posed serious threats to the global trade system. In those circumstances, the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits were first introduced to alleviate the confusion caused by some countries preferring their local laws over the principles of documentary credit. However, after agreeing on the documentary credit system and the UCP, the barriers and fears of countries regarding conflicts of jurisdiction and interpretation were removed. The system became independent, governed by the will of the parties, and subject to what was agreed upon by the contracting parties under any legal system. Consequently, member states no longer need to combat excessive conflict with their local laws.

International mechanisms for the protection of international trade demonstrate the extent of cooperation among states in the field of global trade. The more effective and applied the means, the more states' engagement and interest in international trade are evident. This is achieved by adopting the system of documentary credits opened in the party states, whether at the expense of their own interests or vice versa. This is demonstrated by states incorporating international legal rules into their national legislation and establishing subsidiary bodies concerned with the protection of this trade, which often has an impact on the economies of those countries. For example, Jordan has established special units in banks, starting from the Central Bank of Jordan down to the licensed private banks.

This is also shown by states cooperating with other countries in the field of global and international trade. This cooperation is either preventive, through the establishment of international mechanisms to protect international and global trade between countries, which resulted in the development and updating of the Uniform Customs and Practice (UCP), culminating in UCP 600, which regulated the mechanisms for dealing with documentary credits between countries. Its emergence was initially governed by international customs and practices. The ICC took the initiative to compile and codify these customs for the first time in 1933. The ICC continued its pioneering role by amending and revising these customs every few years. Today, they are widely used and, by the will of all parties to the credit contract, are subject to the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP 600) issued by the ICC in mid-2007, and have been applied by banks since that year. The reason for its great success is that its texts were drafted by banking experts from various member countries who rely on practical applications. The banks of the member countries of the ICC, including Jordanian and Arab banks, adopt the application of these codified international customs in their intermediary operations between the seller and the buyer to provide solvency and trust between countries in the field of international and global trade. They perform this role through the documentary credit contract, which is independent of the sales contract. The main function of banks in various member countries is to check the documentary credit documents for compliance with the conditions listed by the applicant (or importer) when submitting the application to open the credit. If the documents are compliant, the credit value is transferred to the relevant bank in the seller's or exporter's country, which in turn pays the credit value to the exporter or beneficiary. The bank may reject the documents based on non-compliance, whether due to a lack of required documents or because the content of the documents does not match the credit conditions described in the letter of credit.

The role played by states is not sufficient on its own to protect international trade, especially in the era of globalization, the development of communication means, and tremendous technological advancement that has made the world a small village. Therefore, the member states of the International Chamber of Commerce have become aware of the need to protect countries from one of the risks of global trade, which is based on the idea of opening documentary credits between the banks of these countries. It was necessary to establish controls and principles to govern these international transactions.

Hence, the role of the International Chamber of Commerce emerged as an active element in the international community. It adopted the documentation and preparation of the UCP bulletins that govern the operation of documentary credits between countries, aiming for secure international trade, the latest of which was the issuance of UCP 600 in 2007.

This study will focus on verifying whether these international and regional mechanisms contained in UCP 600 are sufficient to protect international trade between countries, highlighting the role of banks and international and regional organizations in this regard. It will examine whether UCP 600 has achieved the objective for which it was created, or if there are other mechanisms that can be reached through our research that would be better and more suitable for application, benefiting member states and international trade in general. This is particularly relevant given the increase and development of transactions between countries, specifically in the field of global trade and its various forms, and the resulting economic damages that affect countries. These countries have sought to address and resolve the various problems arising from them through international mechanisms based on their common interests. This necessitated a study of the effectiveness and adequacy of these mechanisms in facing the problems that arise from these international commercial transactions, which are often based on opening documentary credits between the banks of these countries. This requires checking the credit documents against the conditions specified in the letter of credit, a process fraught with risks where the bank may be held liable for errors in checking the documents, which in turn affects the economies of the countries dealing with documentary credits.

From here came the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP 600), issued by the International Chamber of Commerce in 2007, which regulated the handling of documentary credits. It specified the mechanisms for dealing with documentary credits between countries and their banks in several of its articles and referred to its standards. Issues in the interpretation of these customs have also arisen, which have been settled by the national courts of member states.

Accordingly, we find that there are standards adopted by a group of countries and codified within UCP 600, including the apparent compliance of documentary credits, which is carried out by the banks of member states. This came as a result of the efforts of legal experts and bank employees in the participating countries to achieve justice for the parties to the documentary credit and, consequently, for the host countries of the banks involved, and to address all circumstances and cases that would prevent the bank from future legal liability for paying or releasing the credit value, as well as preserving the economies of member states from these transactions. This is a complex issue that requires in-depth study, the conclusion of which, through this thesis, will be to clarify and define the standards of documentary credits and their apparent compliance by the banks of member states, to enrich future UCP bulletins that may be issued by the ICC. The increase in the volume of documentary credit transactions between various countries has led to the emergence of international problems and issues, most of which relate to errors made by the banks of these countries due to the apparent compliance of documentary credits, becoming an international problem that troubles the international community in the field of international trade and current transactions between countries. This requires us to highlight the standards of this apparent compliance according to UCP 600, as the ICC has taken upon itself the task of organizing and updating the UCP regarding documentary credit to keep pace with the huge development in electronic communication means between individuals from different countries, which promotes the concept of globalization of foreign trade.

Hence, the importance of this study lies in identifying the international mechanisms related to the protection of international trade between countries, in order to know the ability of these mechanisms to protect the system of international transactions. This is done by making comparisons between the international mechanisms approved by the member states of the ICC, namely UCP 600, and the local laws of those countries, to arrive at the optimal model for the most effective mechanisms to preserve international commercial transactions, and then to benefit from and transfer the experience for application at the national level in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Another importance of this study is that these international transactions can create legal problems for Jordanian, Arab, or international courts, which will resort to jurisprudence and the texts of the UCP to decide and adjudicate in disputes over documentary credits between countries. This is due to the absence of national legislative texts in some countries that regulate the concept of documentary credits, its system, and the mechanism for verifying the documents of documentary credits on which international trade is based. This has led local and international courts to exercise discretion outside the framework of the uniform conditions in the absence of a specific text.

The objectives of this study are as follows:

• 1. To understand the international mechanisms in the field of international trade between countries, from agreements issued by the United Nations such as the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Vienna) 1980 and the UCP 600 issued by the International Chamber of Commerce, and to clarify the international legal status of these mechanisms.
• 2. To identify the forms of transactions between countries in the field of international trade.
• 3. To explain the most effective models for protecting payments in international trade, namely documentary credits.
• 4. To clarify the effective role of the UCP 600 in protecting the interests of the parties to international commercial operations and, consequently, protecting the interests of the nationals of the states and their economic dealings.

In addition to arriving at specific apparent standards for documentary credits traded between countries that are clear and keep pace with the huge and advanced technological development in the world of communications, and to find solutions that help countries and their dealing banks avoid legal liability of all kinds, resulting from errors in the precise apparent compliance of documentary credits between countries.

ISBN: 9789923152508, Weight: 0.800 kg, Dimensions: 17x24 cm, Paper: White, Pages: 240, Year of Publication: 2024, Binding: Hardcover