Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877
The Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 was a UK law that reorganised Ireland’s superior courts. It created the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland, made up of two parts: the High Court of Justice in Ireland and the Court of Appeal in Ireland. This matched a similar reform that had already happened in England and Wales.
The act joined the four old courts that handled common law and equity (the Court of Chancery, the Queen’s Bench, the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer) into one High Court of Justice. The old courts didn’t disappear as separate bodies; instead, they became divisions of the new High Court (for example, the King’s Bench Division and the Chancery Division). A new Court of Appeal was also created to hear major appeals.
Over time, later laws changed how these courts were organized. In 1920, Ireland was split into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, and the old Irish Supreme Court of Judicature was abolished, to be replaced by separate courts for the two parts with an overarching appeal court. After the Irish Free State was established in 1922, the Southern Ireland courts continued under new rules, and the 1924 Courts of Justice Act restructured them again.
The act itself was not repealed in the Republic of Ireland and was kept by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007. In Northern Ireland, the 1877 act was repealed in 1978, but a similar system was created—a High Court of Justice and a Court of Appeal—under a new Supreme Court of Judicature. Since the UK’s Supreme Court was created, Northern Ireland’s top court has been known as the Court of Judicature in Northern Ireland.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:56 (CET).