Kangaroo court is a slang term for an unauthorized gathering of people who take the law into their own hands by acting as a court. Such groups usually disregard the principles of law and justice, and impose unfair or excessive punishments.
The term is thought to have arisen in Kansas or Ohio. Pioneer judges traveled from place to place handling trials quickly, and were paid with the fines from convicted prisoners. These leaps from place to place gave rise to the term kangaroo court. Critics of lawfully appointed courts have often used the term to indicate their dissatisfaction with the judgments of such courts.
