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The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators is a London based membership organisation for arbitrators for the promotion and facilitation of dispute resolution. Historically, the Institute has focused primarily upon arbitration, but since the 1990s, it has taken a greater role in relating to training and utilisation of alternative dispute resolution and mediation.

The Institute is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom, and has approximately 11,000 members based in over 100 countries worldwide. The institute was incorporated by Royal Charter.

The main focus of the Institute relates to education and training and seeking to set assured global standards with the longer term aim of promoting confidence amongst parties who utilise arbitration and ADR users that the practitioners involved have the necessary skills and expertise is helping to resolve their dispute.

For arbitrators, there are three levels of members:

• Associates, who only have a rudimentary knowledge of arbitration, and are entitled to use the designation "ACIArb" after their names;
• Members, who have demonstrated a professional level of knowledge in relation to arbtration, and are entitled to use the designation "MCIArb" after their names; and
• Fellows, who have been assessed by the Institute as having undergone the requisite training and having the necessary experience to serve as professional arbitrators. Fellows are entitled to use the designation "FCIArb" after their names, and may also refer to themselves as "Chartered Arbitrators".

Chartered status for Arbitrators was introduced in 1999 and was intended to act as a "gold standard" for practitioners.

The Institute also has similar levels of recognition and members for mediators, although these have not obtained the same level of international recognition.

In addition to its educational activities, the Institute offers bespoke schemes for consumer and commercial markets for non-judicial resolution of disputes. The Institute also offers nominating and appointing services for ad hoc arbitration, adjudication and mediation that are often used by parties in arbitration clauses as a means of selecting a single, neutral, arbitrator.

The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators