Samurai (especially shogunal retainers) at that time were easily involved in problems with court nobles who were lords of private estates where they (samurai) worked as jito; Goseibai-shikimoku was established in order to save samurai from such problems by making them understand the summary of legal order of the time centered in the kugeho and by working in harmony with the samurai society, therefore the reason was not to systemize the bukeho or to make a new order of law based on the bukeho; the kugeho was said to be still the base and was regarded as a formal model and material.
これは、当時の武士（特に御家人）が巻き込まれ易かったのは、地頭として治める荘園における荘園領主である公家との揉め事であり、こうした揉め事から武士を救うには公家法を中心に動いていた当時の法秩序の概要を平易に説いて理解させ、武家社会との調和を図るために御成敗式目は制定されたもので、武家法の体系化や武家法に基づく新秩序形成を目的としたわけではなく、少なくても公家法の存在を前提とし、かつ形式的な模範・素材であったとしている。