The Supreme People's Court is the highest judicial organ of the country. It is responsible to the NPC and its Standing Committee, and reports its work to them. The Supreme People's Court independently exercises the highest judicial power according to law and is not subject to interference by any administrative organ, social organization or individual.

According to the Constitution and statutes, the Supreme People's Court has three responsibilities:

—Handling cases that have the greatest influence, cases of appeals against judgments and rulings of higher courts and cases it deems it should deal with;

—Supervising the administration of justice by local people's courts and military and other special courts at all levels, overruling wrong judgments they have made, and deciding to review the cases itself or to direct the lower-level courts to conduct a retrial; and

—Giving judicial interpretation of questions concerning special applications of laws in judicial proceedings, which must be carried out throughout the country.