adversarial
/ˌadvəˈsɛːrɪəl
/adjective
1Involving or characterized by conflict or opposition: the adversarial nature of the two-party system...
- With shared goals, there is less reason for conflict or adversarial relationships.
- Working for opposing stations the two men relished the jokey adversarial relationship they shared - one which continues until today.
- The Convention drew up a list of principles to guide the Parliament, including the aim to move away from the adversarial nature of Westminster and towards a model based on power-sharing and public participation.
1.1 Law (Of a trial or legal proceedings) in which the parties in a dispute have the responsibility for finding and presenting evidence: an adversarial system of justice...Compare with accusatorial, inquisitorial.
- In this tradition, a single judge both investigates and decides a case without benefit of an adversarial trial.
- We have an adversarial system where evidence needs to be tested under cross-examination, so if we're going to put somebody behind bars, you need to establish charges beyond reasonable doubt.
- If the parties fail to achieve a settlement through the collaborative law approach, the parties may then pursue adversarial court proceedings.
Derivatives
adversarially
- Go back as far as you like, you'll find (some/many) literary theorists insisting that Lies Are Good while (some/many) historians adversarially promote an ethos of Just-the-Facts.
- Eventually this pressure led in 1935 to a Parliamentary Select Committee enquiry into their case, conducted adversarially between two different systems of philosophy and treatment.
- This Tribunal is enjoined to not only be fair, but also to be quick and to act inquisitorially and not adversarially.