The Supreme Court of Lithuania was established on 15 June 1994 and started its activity on 1 January 1995. The Supreme Court of Lithuania is the only court of cassation in the Republic of Lithuania for reviewing effective judgments and rulings passed by the courts hearing criminal cases at the first and appeal instances as well as decisions and rulings in civil cases passed by the courts of appeal instance.

Cassation is an extraordinary form of exercising supervision on the legitimacy of judicial decisions and it is applicable only in exceptional cases defined by the Codes of Criminal and Civil Procedure establishing the grounds for cassation. The Supreme Court hears cases exclusively on the questions of law. The principal objective of the Supreme Court, as a classical court of cassation, is to ensure uniform court practice of courts of general jurisdiction in the State by means of precedents formulated in the cassation rulings.