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The article discusses the acceptability of judge only trials in Australia and mentions the trial judge decisions in cases Western Australia v Rayney [No 3] which was regarding the crime of manslaughter and Western Australia v Rayney which was regarding an appeal against a judgment of acquittal. It highlights both merits and demerits of judge only trials including impartiality and fairness, and influencing the decisions of states respectively.

The article focuses on the Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR) in cases including R v. Nguyen and Gilbert v. The Queen to evaluate whether a viable case of manslaughter should be left on to jury in context to miscarriage of law. In Gilbert, it manifests that directions given by a trial judge was about complicity, however she made a wrong decision on a law.