Kangaroo court

A kangaroo court or kangaroo trial, sometimes likened to a drumhead court-martial or Drumhead trial, is a sham legal proceeding or court. Kangaroo courts are judicial proceedings that deny due process in the name of expediency. The outcome of such a trial is essentially made in advance, usually for the purpose of providing a conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or by allowing no defense at all.

Etymology

The term seems not to originate from Australia, the native continent of kangaroos, as the oldest available evidence stems from the California Gold Rush, with the first written reference (1853) in a Texas context (also mustang court), from the notion of proceeding "by leaps" like the eponymous marsupial. It is possible that the phrase arose out of a combination of informal courts convened to deal with "claim jumpers", such courts being named "kangaroo courts" by some of the many Australian participants in the Gold Rush together with a bit of local word play.

Mock justice

The term is often applied to courts subjectively judged as such, while others consider the court to be legitimate and legal. A kangaroo court may be a court that has had its integrity compromised; for example, if the judge is not impartial and refuses to be recused.

It may also be an elaborately scripted event intended to appear fair while having the outcome predetermined from the start. Terms meaning "show trial", like the German Schauprozess, indicate the result is fixed before (usually guilty): the "trial" is just for show. Notorious were Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's kangaroo trials against his enemies, whom he labeled enemies of the people, notably in the context of the Great Purge. Another example is Roland Freisler's "processes" against the enemies of the National-Socialist regime.

Other uses

• Kangaroo court is also used as a derogatory term to describe the dispute resolution mechanism used by prison inmates within the prison, based upon the pecking order of the prisoners.
• The term is sometimes used without any negative connotation. For example, a baseball team might have a kangaroo court to punish players for errors and other mistakes on the field. Fines are allotted, and at the end of the year, the money collected is given to charity. The organization may also use the money for a team party at the end of the season.
• A kangaroo court is a mock trial and is often held at the end of an officer's mess function in the Australian Army. Usually a junior officer is held on "trial" on frivolous charges relating to recent errors in his leadership. Officers are appointed to prosecute, defend and judge the trial. The event is for the entertainment of officers conducted in good humour and is not intended to intimidate the "prosecuted" officer. The trial always ends in a guilty verdict with the punishment usually involving the consumption of alcohol.
• The formal name of an initiation practice at many colleges consisting of various forms of hazing in a single public event.
• The video game magazine Amiga Power had a feature called 'Kangaroo Court' in its later years, criticising game features it disliked, such as contrived fantasy plots and games which were inferior clones of other games.
• The children's television show, Arthur featured a board game entitled 'Kangaroo Court', apparently parodizing the justice system.
• English shoegaze/britpop band Adorable released a song title Kangaroo Court on their second album, Fake, and as a single. The song suggests that the music critics during the 1990s were a kangaroo court, having decided the fate and direction of bands with little regard for the actual music.

See also

• Lynching
• Show trial
• Court is one collective noun for a mob or troop of kangaroos
• War trials, it often happens that the victor of a war tries the losers in order to appear just and make the losers criminals. Examples:
  • Trial of Saddam Hussein

Sources and External links

• Etymology Online
• The Straight Dope: What's the origin of "kangaroo court"?