Protein tyrosine phosphorylation is ubiquitously found in eukaryotic cells, and it is a fundamental regulatory mechanism to be involved in the regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation and migration. Dysregulation of protein tyrosine phosphorylation can influence various liver diseases, such as liver inflammation, liver fibrosis and liver cancer. The src-homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 1 (SHP-1), a nonreceptor type protein tyrosine phosphatase, is a key regulator of maintaining protein tyrosine phosphorylation level in vivo. Recently, great progress in the research of SHP-1 in liver diseases has been made, and this review summed up the advances of SHP-1 in liver diseases.