{{short description|Court with little or no judicial credibility}} {{Other uses}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 151-39-23, Volksgerichtshof, Reinecke, Freisler, Lautz.jpg|thumb|A session of the People's Court in Nazi Germany, a kangaroo court that conducted show trials of political enemies<ref name=myths>{{cite book|title=Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths|last=Epstein|first=Catherine|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2015|isbn=978-1-118-29478-9|pages=59, 191}}</ref>|upright=1.6]]
'''Kangaroo court''' is an informal pejorative term for a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Scharf |first1=Michael P. |title=The United States and the International Criminal Court: A Recommendation for the Bush Administration |journal=ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law |date=2006 |volume=2 |page=385}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1985-01-04 |title=What's the origin of "kangaroo court"? Is "kangaroo" aborigine for "I don't know"? |url=https://www.straightdope.com/21341670/what-s-the-origin-of-kangaroo-court-is-kangaroo-aborigine-for-i-don-t-know |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=The Straight Dope |language=en}}</ref> A kangaroo court may ignore due process and come to a predetermined conclusion. The term is also used for a court held by a legitimate judicial authority, but which intentionally or structurally disregards the court's legal or ethical obligations (compare show trial).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/kangaroo_court|title=Kangaroo court|work=Wex|publisher=Cornell Law School|access-date=July 6, 2020|archive-date=August 23, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823180550/https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/kangaroo_court|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stempel|first=Jeffrey W.|title=Keeping Arbitrations from Becoming Kangaroo Courts|journal=Nevada Law Review|volume=8|page=251|date=30 December 2007|publisher=UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law Legal Studies|id=Research Paper 08-05|url=https://ssrn.com/abstract=1050681|access-date=June 30, 2023|archive-date=August 23, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823180710/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1050681|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Etymology== The term is known to have been used in the United States in 1841: an article in ''The Daily Picayune'', New Orleans quotes the ''Concordia Intelligencer'' reporting several lynchings "upon various charges instituted by the Kangaroo court", asking "Don't comprehend: What is a Kangaroo court?"<ref>{{cite news |title=What is a ''Kangaroo court'', neighbor? |date=August 24, 1841 |newspaper=The Daily Picayune |page=2 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36922641/the_timespicayune/ |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><!--The ''Concordia Intelligencer'' is apparently only available online starting from September 1841--> The term is not attested to have been used in Australia, native land of the kangaroo, or elsewhere before then.<ref name=Etymology/>
The derivation of the term is not known, though there has been speculation. One suggestion is that, as these courts are often convened quickly to deal with an immediate issue, they are called kangaroo courts since they have "jumped up" out of nowhere, like a kangaroo. Another possibility is that the phrase could refer to the pouch of a kangaroo, meaning the court is in someone's pocket.<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of ''kangaroo court'' |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kangaroo+court |access-date=2020-09-02 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Kangaroo court |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/law/kangaroo-court |access-date=2020-09-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title='Kangaroo court' has a peculiarly American past|last=Mohr|first=Melissa|date=2019-10-24|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|issn=0882-7729|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/In-a-Word/2019/1024/Kangaroo-court-has-a-peculiarly-American-past|access-date=2020-09-02|archive-date=October 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001225640/https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/In-a-Word/2019/1024/Kangaroo-court-has-a-peculiarly-American-past|url-status=live}}</ref> Some sources suggest that the term may have been popularized during the California Gold Rush of 1849 to which many thousands of Australians flocked. In consequence of the Australian miners' presence, it may have come about as a description of the hastily carried-out proceedings used to deal with the issue of claim-jumping miners.<ref name=Etymology>{{cite web |last=Adams |first=Cecil |date=January 4, 1985 |title=What's the origin of "kangaroo court"? Is "kangaroo" aborigine for "I don't know"? |website=The Straight Dope |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/491/whats-the-origin-of-kangaroo-court |access-date=October 1, 2012 |archive-date=August 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823180552/https://www.straightdope.com/21341670/what-s-the-origin-of-kangaroo-court-is-kangaroo-aborigine-for-i-don-t-know |url-status=live }}</ref>
Etymologist Philologos suggests that the term arose "because a place named ''Kangaroo'' sounded comical to its hearers, just as place names like ''Kalamazoo'', and ''Booger Hole'', and ''Okeefenokee Swamp'', strike us as comical."<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Philologos |title=The origins of the phrase "kangaroo court" have been hiding in plain sight |access-date=17 June 2020 |magazine=Mosaic |date=17 June 2020 |url=https://ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/observations/the-origins-of-the-phrase-kangaroo-court-have-been-hiding-in-plain-sight}}</ref> In 19th-century United States, an alternative term was "mustang" court, after horses that roamed the plains, thus evoking the image of a court presided over by a wild beast.<ref name="w453">{{cite web |last=Poole |first=Steven |date=2019-10-10 |title='Kangaroo court': what have marsupials got to do with White House politics? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/10/word-of-the-week-kangaroo-court |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=the Guardian}}</ref> The term is still in common use in the Anglosphere.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lehman |first1=Jeffrey |last2=Phelps |first2=Shirelle |year=2005 |title=West's Encyclopedia of American Law |volume=1 | edition=2 |publisher=Thomson/Gale |location=Detroit |isbn=9780787663742 |page=57}}</ref>
==As informal proceedings in sport== The term is sometimes used without any negative connotation. For example, many Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball teams have a kangaroo court to punish players for errors on the field, being late for a game or practice, not wearing proper attire to road games, or having a messy locker in the clubhouse. Fines are allotted, and at the end of the year the money collected is given to charity or used for a team party at the end of the season.<ref>{{cite book | last = Bouton | first = Jim | author-link = Jim Bouton | title = Ball Four | publisher = Wiley | date = 1990 | edition = 2nd | isbn = 0-02-030665-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/ballfour00bout }}</ref>
==See also== * Basmanny justice {{Portal|Law}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book | last=Carter | first=R.M. | title=The Kangaroo Court in American Jails | publisher=University of California, Berkeley | year=1958 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYhJAQAAMAAJ }} 288 pages.
==External links== {{Wiktionary|kangaroo court}} *
{{Miscarriage of justice|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kangaroo Court}} Category:Abuse of the legal system Category:Courts by type Category:Human rights abuses Category:Metaphors referring to animals Category:Political pejoratives Category:Informal legal terminology Category:Types of trials Category:Vigilantism Category:War crimes