The purpose of this dissertation is to study on the Chinese, American, British, Korean, Japanese and international ship finance regimes on a comparative basis. The first part of the dissertation introduces various shipping finance sources. The second part of the dissertation focuses on analysis of the loan agreement, security documents and other related legal documentation and their principal clauses as well as implications to the shipping finance practice. The author then researches on the ship lease financing in China, Coastwise Trade Endorsement and Jones Act Sale Leaseback in the United States, Tax Lease regime in the UK and government finance models in Japan and Korea. The author also compares the ship mortgage regimes in China, the United States, Liberia and the Marshall Islands, and illustrates practices and legal issues in connection with ship construction, sale and purchase and classification society. In the final part of the dissertation, the authors proposes alternatives and improvements for Chinese shipping finance and advantages of the U.S., Japanese and Korean regimes which China could learn from. / acase@tulane.edu