Adversarial System in the United States

An Adversarial System and the Federal Courts

In the words of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts: The litigation process in U.S. courts is referred to as an “adversarial” system because it relies on the litigants to present their dispute before a neutral fact-finder. According to American legal tradition, inherited from the English common law, the clash of adversaries before the court is most likely to allow the jury or judge to determine the truth and resolve the dispute at hand. In some other legal systems, judges or other court officials investigate and assist the parties to find relevant evidence or obtain testimony from witnesses. In the United States, the work of collecting evidence and preparing to present it to the court is accomplished by the litigants and their attorneys, normally without assistance from the court.

Concept of Adversarial System

In the U.S., in the context of Judiciary power and branch, Adversarial System has the following meaning: The adversarial system is a key feature of the Anglo-American common law tradition. The parties on either side of a legal action take the position of opponents or adversaries before the court, which decides the winner of this legal conflict. Unlike the inquisitorial system in which accused parties must exonerate themselves before a judge or judges who function as both judge and prosecutor, in the adversarial system the opposing sides compete to convince an impartial judge or jury of the merits of their legal assertions of guilt, innocence, liability, obligation, and the like. (Source of this definition of Adversarial System : University of Texas)

Adversarial System

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See Also

• Judiciary Power
• Judiciary Branch