Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the final court of appeal for the United Kingdom’s overseas territories and Crown Dependencies and for a number of Commonwealth countries. It is formally a statutory committee of the Privy Council, set up under the Judicial Committee Act 1833.

The committee hears appeals from 32 jurisdictions, including eleven independent nations such as Jamaica, The Bahamas, Mauritius and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Its judges are privy counsellors, mainly Justices of the UK Supreme Court and senior judges from Commonwealth countries. Five judges normally hear Commonwealth appeals, and three hear other matters.

Since 1 October 2009 it has sat at the Middlesex Guildhall in Westminster, London, sharing a building and administrative functions with the UK Supreme Court. Before that it sat in the Council Chamber on Downing Street.

It is in the news because on 10 November 2026 it struck down the Trinidad and Tobago ban on gay sex, ruling the colonial-era law unconstitutional.

Sources: Wikipedia, JCPC official website, Nation in Shorts