Abstract There is no doubt about risky nature of international trade. Such risk can be conceptualized as country risk, transportation risk, customer risk and etc. Documentary Letters of Credit (LC) are used as a method of payment in international business for many centuries in order to reduce risk of trade specially when parties are located in different countries and do not have precise information from financial standing of each other. In such occasion LC will reduce the risk of trade by shifting payment obligation from buyer as an individual to a payment guarantee of a bank as a legal entity in return for presentation of complying documents with terms of credit by seller. Familiarity with legal nature and different legal frameworks which govern the international operation of documentary letters of credit can facilitate the process of international trade for businessmen and boost national economies. However, lack of knowledge about them can impose huge losses on international traders. Situation will be more complicated when we understand that there are many internationally recognized legal frameworks which can affect the operation of LC and they get frequently updated in order to address technological and economic developments in global market. In this paper, author tries to answer questions regarding (i) what are international legal frameworks governing operation of documentary letters of credit? (ii) which areas of LC operation has been covered by them and (iii) how do they address the legal questions regarding international operation of documentary letters of credit?

中文翻译：

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跟单信用证，法律性质和法律渊源

摘要毫无疑问，国际贸易具有风险性质。可以将此类风险概念化为国家风险，运输风险，客户风险等。信用证（LC）在国际业务中用作付款方式已有多个世纪的历史，以降低交易风险，尤其是当交易方位于不同的国家/地区，并且彼此之间的财务状况并没有确切的信息。在这种情况下，LC会通过将付款义务从购买者个人转移到银行作为法人实体的付款担保，以换取卖方提供符合信用条件的单据来降低交易风险。熟悉跟单信用证的国际运作的法律性质和不同的法律框架，可以促进商人的国际贸易进程，并促进国民经济。但是，对它们的了解不足会给国际贸易商带来巨大损失。当我们了解到有许多国际认可的法律框架可能影响信用证的运作，并且为了应对全球市场的技术和经济发展而不断更新时，情况将更加复杂。在本文中，作者试图回答有关以下方面的问题：（i）关于跟单信用证运作的国际法律框架是什么？（ii）他们涵盖了LC运营的哪些领域，并且（iii）他们如何解决有关跟单信用证的国际运营的法律问题？