DC Insight

A number of contentious issues are covered in this issue of Insight. These include banking charges, forwarders' bills of lading, definitions of "beneficiary" in UCP 600, negotiation as a means of finance and several others.

Since the first issue of this magazine appeared in 1995, our editorial policy has been to let our writers have their say, even when we disagreed with their conclusions. The editor's note in that issue contained the following quotation from the then Secretary General of ICC: "The masthead of this newsletter bears the name 'ICC'. But that does not mean our writers will always take the ICC point of view. Our job is to strike the right balance of opinion; then it's for you, the reader, to decide."

For the last 15 years, we've tried to adhere to that philosophy, because we believe that free and open debate is the best way to shed light on issues that are open to honest differences of opinion.

Of course, striking "the right balance of opinion" means that those on both sides of an issue have to speak out. That's why we depend on our readers to respond to articles with which they do not agree. In this issue, we include two such responses, one in "Right of response", the other in "Documentary dialogue".