Definition of kangaroo court in English:

noun

• An unofficial court held by a group of people in order to try someone regarded, especially without good evidence, as guilty of a crime or misdemeanor.

  ‘they conducted a kangaroo court there and then’

  More example sentences

  • ‘We have complained that it decides over important matters - the ownership of a domain name - but behaves more like a kangaroo court than a law court.’
  • ‘They are treated as witnesses rather than prosecutors at the weekly kangaroo court known as the tribunal.’
  • ‘Even the most properly constituted court is only a kangaroo court without a lawyer.’
  • ‘His kangaroo court can conceal evidence by citing national security, make up its own rules, find a defendant guilty and execute the alien with no review by any civilian court, Safire concluded.’
  • ‘The other process is a kangaroo court where the prosecutors design the rules of the forum to ensure that a conviction is obtained without any reference to justice or fairness.’
  • ‘As to the suggested appeal, who will the Mayo Board appeal to… a kangaroo court appointed by the national executive?’
  • ‘The process was, by any standard, a kangaroo court, with Johnston unable to attend and found guilty in absentia.’
  • ‘Typically, he responded robustly to his expulsion by saying it was done ‘by a kangaroo court whose verdict had been written in advance in the best tradition of political show trials’.’
  • ‘‘We're not a court, still less a kangaroo court,’ they write.’
  • ‘Rather, the reason is that scientists have no desire to participate in a kangaroo court whose verdict was decided a long time ago.’
  • ‘Instead he is being handed over to the US government to be put through a kangaroo court which will rely on evidence gathered by the British police.’
  • ‘In some cases, one encounters a kangaroo court ironically enforcing ‘respect for persons.’’
  • ‘It's up to the Australian immigration authorities to determine the origin of the asylum seekers, and give them due process, not the kangaroo court of spurious Australian public opinion.’
  • ‘Then the convict might get a trial in a kangaroo court.’
  • ‘It does not work quite like that for, fortunately, in addition to the law, we also have a jury called the electorate rather than a kangaroo court called the British media.’
  • ‘This is not a fair process; it is a kangaroo court, dispensing victor's justice.’
  • ‘Instead, they're saying that after a year of hardship, I've now got to go before a kangaroo court.’
  • ‘You might have heard us mentioning on the air that the Cubs held kangaroo court last week.’
  • ‘People are harassed, victimised for speaking to the Press, hauled before terrible kangaroo courts if they step out of line.’