Hague Convention of 1912 Relating to Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes: A Comparison with Anglo-American Law (Part 2)

Abstract

The continental law did not allow an immediate right of recourse for non-acceptance. A refusal to accept entitled the holder only to security from the drawer and the indorser that the bill would be paid on the day of maturity. In practice this right amounted to very little. The Uniform Law adopts the Anglo-American rule, which allows immediate recourse. It goes beyond the Anglo-American law in providing that such right shall exist· also in case of the bankruptcy of the drawee, whether an acceptor or not, of suspension of. payments, of ineffective execution against his goods, and in case of the bankruptcy of the drawer of a bill not subject to acceptance.The Uniform Law, however, does not allow the holder of a bill to treat the bill as dishonored by non-acceptance without presentment for acceptance or protest, as he may in the United States, when the drawee is dead, or has absconded, or is a fictitious person, or a person not having capacity to contract by bill.