The most recent version of the DOCDEX (Documentary Instruments Dispute Resolution Expertise) rules, ICC Publication 872, came into force on 1 May 2015.
DOCDEX was first introduced in 1997: published decisions can be found in ICC Publications No. 665 (1997-2003), No. 696 (2004-2008) and 739 (2009-2012). A resolution on the publication of decisions since that date is under review by the ICC. The numbering system is from Decision 201 to Decision 351, 11 of which were withdrawn before a decision was rendered.
It is planned that any future publication will include:
In view of the timeframe since the introduction of the DOCDEX rules, various versions of ICC rules have been covered: UCP 222/400/500/600, URR 525/725, URC 522, URDG 458/758 and ISBP 645/681/745.
The majority of decisions have application to UCP (119) and ISBP (35). An analysis of the UCP articles that have attracted the most queries reveals that issues surrounding discrepant documents predominate, followed closely by the standard for examination of documents. It is clear that it is in this area that a lack of knowledge of key procedures can cause problems.
Other common problems with UCP 500 related to unspecified issuers or contents of documents, documents v. goods, liability of issuing and confirming banks and the description of goods in commercial invoices. A fairly similar story has been seen with UCP 600, the most common items being documents v. goods, credits v. contracts, amendments, commercial invoices and transferable credits.
In addition, 2 decisions exist for URR 525, 1 for URR 725, 9 for URC 522, 4 for URDG 458 and 5 for URDG 758.