In Chu Kheng Lim, Brennan, Deane and Dawson JJ held that the adjudgment and punishment of criminal guilt is the most important of those 'functions which, by reason of their nature or because of historical considerations, have become established as essentially and exclusively judicial'.
(83) Thus Brennan, Deane and Dawson JJ are on solid ground when they say that the adjudgment and punishment of criminal guilt is, by reason of its nature and because of historical considerations, the most important instance of the exclusive judicial power.