Our mission
“To conduct strategic research in support of an efficient and fair maritime industry and the decent employment of seafarers.”
SRI carries out research into all aspects of the legal framework surrounding those who work at sea and those who operate vessels. Its objective is to provide the shipping industry, governments, UN agencies and all other sectors of the maritime industry with the facts needed for informed and evidence-based decision making.
The regulation of shipping is complex. At any one time, a number of different States may have some kind of interest in a particular ship, and those who work on that ship. This legal framework can span international, regional and national laws, and can cross disciplines such as maritime, labour, human rights, criminal and environmental law. There can be conflicts of laws and there are unique challenges in the enforcement of laws for those who operate in an industry where there is often functional separation of ownership, operation and regulation.
SRI was launched at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations by the then Secretary-General, Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, on World Maritime Day in the Year of the Seafarer, 23 September 2010. Today it operates at the heart of the shipping industry, offering all sectors of the maritime community impartial high-quality legal and policy research in regulatory and operational issues of concern to the maritime industry.
