A monograph by historian Woodrow Borah examines the precedents for establishing the court, the procedures it adopted, and the financing legal aid to Indians through a tax of a half real.
[3] [4] Spanish officials came to recognize that the access of indigenous individuals and communities to courts for summary judgments at low cost and without the possibility of extended litigation would benefit them.
The legal theory underpinning the establishment of the court was that the crown had the duty to protect miserables, such as widows and orphans, and the classification was extended to the indigenous peoples.
Although with the establishment of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in 1571, indigenous were deemed perpetual neophytes and excluded from its jurisdiction, but the establishment of the General Indian Court under Viceroy Luis Velasco II, indigenous, particularly in Central Mexico, had standing in the legal system.
Vested Spanish interests opposed the establishment of the court, since their practices could be blocked by complaints by indigenous about exploitation.