A Kangaroo Court is an irregular – or even illegal – tribunal that is carried out with total disregard for due legal process. It was common during 19th century America for court procedure to miss out legal steps in order to obtain a popular or convenient conviction and this was known as jumping through the procedure of justice. The phrase was first recorded in America in 1853 and has firm links with the Californian gold rush of 1849, which was joined by many Australian prospectors. During this time, informal courts were set up to deal with “illegal prospectors” who people saw as claim jumpers. Many of these were Australian and so it’s quite clear how the phrase passed over into wider use. The expression became well-known in Britain when applied to the dubious tribunals used by trade unions to deal with members who were seen as strike-breakers.