Abstract: The integration of multi-modal transport is a major change in the organization form of modern transport. The theoretical and practical differences between electronic documents and paper documents reflect the development from the industrial era to the digital era, and the unification and digitalization of multi-modal transport documents is an inevitable trend in the development of commercial practice. However, the lack of functional value and technical attributes of existing legal rules has become an obstacle to the development of international multi-modal transport in practice, which has significantly hindered the gradual reform of the multi-modal transport and the legal function of electronic documents. Therefore, it is suggested that the value orientation and theoretical basis of the construction of rules of international multi-modal electronic documents be clarified, and that epistemology of the construction of rules be interpreted anew through the dimensional deconstruction, logical aggregation and rule construction. On such basis, standardized, digitalized international legal system of international multi-modal transport document can be established.

Key words: digitization, multi-modal transport, unified document system, electronic document, function of document of title, electronic international multi-modal transport document