A kangaroo court (also known as a kangaroo trial or a Drumhead trial) is a sham legal proceeding or court, often judged subjectively through the speaker's perspective. It may be a court that has had its integrity compromised, i.e., the impartiality of the judge who refuses to be recused, or an elaborately scripted event intended to appear fair while having the outcome predetermined from the start.

It can be a derogatory term that may be used to describe the dispute resolution mechanism used by prison inmates to resolve disputes within the prison based upon the pecking order of the prisoners.

Sometimes it is used without the negative connotation. For example, a baseball team might have a kangaroo court to punish players for errors and mistakes on the field. Fines are allotted, and at the end of the year, the money collected is given to charity.

Although it might be an obvious guess that the phrase was coined in Australia, it seems to have originated during the California Gold Rush, with the first written reference in 1853. It is possible that the phrase arose out of a combination of informal courts convened to deal with "claim jumpers," the many Australian participants in the Gold Rush and a bit of word play.

Related articles

• Lynching
• Show trial

External link

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