The carbamate group is a key structural motif in many approved drugs and prodrugs. There is an increasing use of carbamates in medicinal chemistry and many carbamate derivatives are specifically designed to make drug-target interactions through their carbamate moiety. In this review, we present properties and stabilities of carbamates, reagents and chemical methodologies for the synthesis of carbamates, and recent application of carbamates in drug design and medicinal chemistry.