Change of medium

Change of medium means switching a transferable document such as a bill of lading from paper to electronic form, or from electronic to paper form, during its life. It matters because a party later in the chain, or a country on the route, may not accept the electronic form. Articles 17 and 18 of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR, 2017) allow replacement in either direction if a reliable method is used and a statement indicating the change of medium is inserted in the new form. The old form is then made inoperative and ceases to have effect, and the parties' rights and obligations are unaffected. The Explanatory Note says replacing an electronic record with paper is the more frequent case in practice. In the United Kingdom, section 4 of the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 ("Change of form") permits conversion if the new form states that the document has been converted and any contractual or other requirements are met; the old form ceases to have effect and rights and liabilities continue. The Explanatory Notes say a change of content is a fresh issue, not a change of medium. Article 10 of the Rotterdam Rules (2008) contains a similar procedure, but UNCITRAL's status page showed on 17 October 2026 that the Convention was not in force.