Bills of exchange acts can be divided into narrow and broad senses. In a narrow sense, bills of exchange acts refer to the necessary legal acts for the purpose of assuming the debts on bills of exchange, including issuance, endorsement, acceptance, guarantee, etc. Among them, issuance is the main bill of exchange act, and it is also the basic bill of exchange act for creating bills of exchange; other acts are based on the bills of exchange issued by “issuance”, so they are called subsidiary bill of exchange acts.
Broadly speaking, bill of exchange acts refer to all kinds of acts that can cause the occurrence, change or extinction of bill of exchange legal relations. In addition to the above-mentioned narrow bill of exchange acts, broadly speaking, bill of exchange acts also include quasi-bill of exchange acts such as presentation, payment, refusal to pay, and recourse. The issuance of bills of exchange is formal, and bill of exchange acts are also formal, so they must comply with the provisions of the Bill of Exchange Law.
Issue
Issue refers to a bill of exchange act in which the drawee issues a bill of exchange in accordance with the provisions of the Bill of Exchange Law and delivers it to the payee. Issue includes two actions: making and delivering. Making a bill of exchange refers to recording the statutory matters and signing on the original bill of exchange, and delivering a bill of exchange refers to delivering the bill of exchange to another person for the purpose of establishing a bill of exchange relationship. The making and delivery are necessary conditions for the establishment of the bill issuance and the validity of the bill, and neither of them can be missing.
2. Endorsement
Endorsement refers to a bill behavior of signing on the back of the bill and delivering it to the endorsee. By writing the endorsement and delivering it, the endorser transfers the bill and its rights to the endorsee. The emergence of endorsement is a sign that the bill has become a circulating security and a qualitative leap in the history of the development of bills.
Endorsement is indivisible, that is, the amount of the bill transferred must be the full amount on the bill and the transferee is the only one. If the endorsement violates the indivisibility, the endorsement is invalid and the endorsee cannot obtain the bill rights. In addition, the “Bills of Exchange Law” of the United Kingdom, the United States and my country also stipulates the simplicity of endorsement, that is, endorsement shall not be subject to conditions. If the endorsement violates the simplicity, the conditions attached will be deemed invalid and will not affect the validity of the endorsement. The endorsee can still obtain the bill rights based on this endorsement.