Kangaroo Court Law and Legal Definition
Kangaroo court is where an unfair trial takes place. It is in which the rights of the accused and precepts of justice are ignored and the outcome is usually known beforehand.
The origins of the term are obscure. Oddly, it does not seem to have originated in Australia; the first uses of the term are found in the American West in the 1850's. None of the theories of its origin are particularly plausible. The most appealing version has it that "kangaroo courts" initially tried "claim jumpers", and the name arose from associative wordplay.
