It superseded the Court for Crown Cases Reserved to which referral had been solely discretionary and which could only consider points of law.

However, disquiet over the convictions of Adolf Beck and George Edalji led to the concession of a new court that could hear matters of law, fact or mixed law and fact.

[1] Though the court was staffed with the judges who had shown such hostility (consisting of the Lord Chief Justice and eight judges of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court), it had a restraining effect on the excesses of prosecutors.

Of that 170, conviction was quashed in 20 percent of cases and sentence varied in another 22 per cent.

Further, trial judges' ability to invade the jury's role as trier of fact came under scrutiny, as did the practice of insisting that the defence proceed even in the case of an inadequate prima facie case by the prosecution.