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 convenedad hoc.[1][2] A kangaroo court may ignoredue 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 (compareshow trial).[3][4]
The term is known to have been used in the United States in 1841: an article inThe Daily Picayune,New Orleans quotes theConcordia Intelligencer reporting severallynchings "upon various charges instituted by the Kangaroo court", asking "Don't comprehend: What is a Kangaroo court?"[5] The term is not attested to have been used in Australia, native land of thekangaroo, or elsewhere before then.[6]
The derivation of the term is not known, although 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.[7][8][9] Some sources suggest that the term may have been popularized during theCalifornia 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 ofclaim-jumping miners.[6]
EtymologistPhilologos suggests that the term arose "because a place namedKangaroo sounded comical to its hearers, just as place names likeKalamazoo, andBooger Hole, andOkeefenokee Swamp, strike us as comical."[10]
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.[11]
The term is still in common use in theAnglosphere.[12]
The term is sometimes used without any negative connotation. For example, manyMajor League Baseball andMinor League Baseball teams have a kangaroo court to punish players forerrors on the field, being late for a game or practice, not wearing proper attire to road games, or having a messy locker in theclubhouse. Fines are allotted, and at the end of the year, the money collected is given tocharity or used for a team party at the end of the season.[13]
