The Sharjah International Arbitration Centre (Tahkeem) (the Centre) was established in 2009 pursuant to Sharjah Emiri Decree No. 6/2009 on Establishment of the Sharjah International Commercial Arbitration Centre.

The Centre was granted regulatory, administrative and financial independence pursuant to Sharjah Administrative Decision No. 12/2015 issued by the Chairman of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Centre provides administrative and organisational support to parties in arbitration and reconciliation. It maintains a list of conciliators, arbitrators, experts and translators for parties to choose from and offers premises for holding reconciliation and arbitration sessions.

The Centre Rules were completely revised in 2017 which replaced the previous rules issued vide Board Resolution on 25 March 2009 (the Rules). The new Rules came into force on 1 June 2017.

The new Rules are aligned with international best practices and provide a more detailed framework by including provisions on emergency arbitrator, joinder and intervention by parties, and consolidation of arbitration.

The Rules contain basic principles or arbitration known in the international arbitration practice such as the separability of arbitration agreement from the underlying contract, principle of competence-competence and party autonomy.