Professor James E. BYRNE is the Director of the Institute of International Banking Law & Practice, Inc. and teaches at George Mason University School of Law. He is the Editor of Documentary Credit World, a monthly journal of letter of credit law and practice, and has written and spoken extensively on LC law and practice. He chaired and served as Reporter for the International Standby Practices (ISP98), and is a member of the ICC Banking Commission and its consulting group on the revision of UCP500. He was a member of the ICC’s Working Group on Electronic Credits charged with drafting a supplement to the UCP to accommodate presentation of electronic documents, the eUCP. He chaired the American Bar Association/ U.S. Council on International Banking Task Force Study of U.C.C. Article 5, served as head of the U.S. Delegation to UNCITRAL in drafting the 1995 United Nations Convention on Bank Guarantees and Stand-by Letters of Credit, was an Advisor in the 1995 Revision of UCC Article 5, is Past Chair of the American Bar Association/Business Law Section Letter of Credit Subcommittee, and has written and lectured extensively on letters of credit, electronic commerce, international commerce and banking, and financial fraud. Professor Byrne has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, a J.D. from Stetson University College of Law, and an LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania. He clerked for the Honorable Paul H. Roney of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and practiced for several years in Florida. He is a member of the Florida and Maryland bars.