What is the Supreme Court?
The nutshell
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the UK. It settles the most important legal cases, but it cannot cancel a law that Parliament has passed.
Every fact on this page comes from the court's own guide and non-partisan explainers. Each source tag — like UKSC — opens where a fact comes from.
The basics
What the Supreme Court is
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the UK. When a case has been through the lower courts and one side still disagrees, the Supreme Court can be asked to look at it one last time. Its decision is final, and no other UK court can overturn it.UKSC
What kinds of case it hears
The Supreme Court does not hear everyday cases. It takes appeals on points of law — big questions about what the law actually means — that matter to the whole country. It is the final court for civil cases across the UK, and for criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.UKSC
What it cannot do
The UK Supreme Court is not the same as the one in the United States. It cannot cancel or strike down a law that Parliament has passed. The House of Commons Library explains that UK courts must apply the laws Parliament makes — a rule called parliamentary sovereignty.HoC The court can still rule on whether the government has acted within the law, which is called judicial review.IfG
How it started
The Supreme Court opened in October 2009. Before then, the top appeals were heard by 12 senior judges called the Law Lords, who sat inside the House of Lords. Moving the top court out of the House of Lords kept the judges separate from Parliament and the government.Parl
- The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal, so no other UK court can overturn its decisions
- It began work in October 2009, taking over from the Law Lords who used to sit in the House of Lords
- It hears appeals on important points of law from across the UK, not everyday disputes
- It is not like the US Supreme Court — it cannot strike down a law made by Parliament
- It does not decide who wins an election or set government policy — it rules on the law
- Being the highest court does not mean it hears the most cases — most cases end in the lower courts
The deep end6 min
The final court of appeal
The Supreme Court sits at the top of the UK court system. It hears appeals on arguable points of law of the greatest public importance — for the whole of the UK in civil cases, and for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in criminal cases.UKSC Criminal appeals from Scotland are not included, because Scotland keeps its own top criminal court. Twelve judges, called Justices, make up the court.UKSC
Why the court was created
Until 2009, the highest appeals in the UK were decided by the Law Lords, a group of senior judges who sat as a committee inside the House of Lords. That placed the top court inside Parliament. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 moved the role to a new Supreme Court, which opened on 1 October 2009 in a separate building on the other side of Parliament Square.Parl UK Parliament records that the change was made to strengthen the separation of powers, keeping the judges apart from the politicians who make the law.Parl
The limit set by parliamentary sovereignty
The UK Supreme Court is often compared with the Supreme Court of the United States, but the two have different powers. The House of Commons Library explains that UK courts must apply the laws Parliament passes and cannot strike down an Act of Parliament.HoC This is called parliamentary sovereignty. In the United States, by contrast, courts can strike down a law that breaks the written constitution. The UK has no single written constitution of that kind.HoC
Checking the government, not Parliament
The court still plays a strong role through judicial review. The Institute for Government describes judicial review as a case that challenges whether a public body or the government has acted lawfully, where a decision can be overturned if the decision-maker had no legal power to make it.IfG So the court cannot overrule Parliament, but it can rule on whether ministers and public bodies have stayed within the law that Parliament set.