What is the Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the UK and the place of last resort to appeal judgments made in lower courts. It generally focuses on cases that are of the greatest public and constitutional significance. The court was created in 2009, before which appeals were heard by judges in the House of Lords. Even while the UK was an EU member state, it was not possible to appeal UK Supreme Court rulings in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), but the Supreme Court could ask the ECJ for an opinion on how to interpret EU law. During the Brexit process the Supreme Court was involved in two important cases – the Miller case on whether Parliament had to consent to triggering Article 50 and a case on whether the prorogation of Parliament in September 2019 was lawful.