ADVERSARY SYSTEM

adversary system.A procedural system, such as the Anglo-American legal system, involving

active and unhin-dered parties contesting with each other to put forth a case before an independent

decision-maker.  —  Also  termed  adversary  procedure;  (in  criminal  cases)  accusatorial  system,

accusatory procedure. Cf. INQUISITORIAL SYSTEM.

“The term adversary system sometimes characterizes an entire legal process, and sometimes

it refers only to criminal procedure. In the latter instance, it is often used interchangeably with an

old  expression of  continental European  origin, ‘accusatorial procedure,’ and  is juxtaposed to the

‘inquisitorial,’  or  ‘nonadversary,’  process.  There  is  no  precise  understanding,  however,  of  the

institutions  and  arrangements  denoted  by  these  expressions.”  Mirjan  Damaska,  “Adversary

Procedure,” in 1 Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice 24, 24–25 (Sanford H. Kadish ed., 1983). [Blacks Law 8th]