The Centre for Maritime Law (CML) at the NUS Faculty of Law is a research centre sponsored in collaboration with the Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI) and working with the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

CML leverages Singapore’s status as the second busiest port in the world and top International Maritime Centre (IMC), as evidenced by Menon Economic/DNV, The Leading Maritime Cities of the World 2024, and the 2024 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index Report.

CML has established itself as the go-to centre for research and teaching in maritime law in Singapore, the region, and further afield. It provides the only platform for research and teaching in maritime law and training for the commercial maritime community in Singapore. CML’s commercial maritime law focus provides a platform for research on wide-ranging legal issues, including:

• Carriage of goods by sea and charterparties
• Admiralty law and practice
• Ship finance
• Maritime arbitration
• Salvage, towage, and pilotage
• Ship sale and purchase
• International sales/commodities
• Trade finance
• Oil and gas law

CML’s work includes research and writing in its focus areas through colloquia, seminars, and other academic endeavours, including a database, Judicial Decisions on International Conventions, which is produced in collaboration with the Comité Maritime International (CMI), and the Working Paper Series. Members of CML publish their research in academic journals, books and edited books for leading publishers, serve as members of the editorial board of the Journal of International Maritime Law and country reporters for Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, and are regularly invited to teach in universities abroad and speak at conferences and colloquia in Singapore, the region, and further afield.

CML also leads in the teaching of maritime law to undergraduate students in the Faculty of Law, as well as the LLM (Master of Laws) in Maritime Law, for law graduates, and the Graduate Diploma in Maritime Law and Arbitration (GDMLA), for professionals working in the maritime sector in Singapore.