The Judicial Studies Board for Northern Ireland (JSB) was established in 1994.

Membership of the Board consists of at least one representative from every judicial tier, a legal academic and the current Director of Servicing the Legal System (SLS).  The current Chairman is the Right Honourable Lord Justice Higgins.  The Northern Ireland Court Service provides secretarial support for the Board and finances its work directly from the Court Service budget.

The aims and objectives of the Board are to provide suitable and effective programmes of practical studies for full and part time members of the judiciary and to improve upon the system of disseminating information to them.  In order to protect judicial independence and in particular to ensure that sectional interests are not brought to bear on the judiciary through the training events, the Board is “judge driven”.

The Board currently aims to provide a mixture of ten events and workshops per term, to meet the needs of judiciary at all levels.

Members of the judiciary are also invited to attend courses organised and run by the Judicial Studies Board in England and Wales (JSB) and the Judicial Studies Committee (JSC) in Scotland.

The Board is a founder member of the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) and members of the judiciary attend conferences in a number of other jurisdictions to discuss matters of mutual interest.