a. [f. L. accūsātōri-us belonging to an accuser + -AL 1.] Of or pertaining to an accuser. Applied to legal procedure, in which a distinct accuser or prosecutor appears.
1823. Bentham, Not Paul but Jesus, 350. In modern Rome-bred law, this mode of procedure, in which the parts of judge and prosecutor are performed by the same person, is styled the inquisitorial; in contradistinction to this, that in which the part of prosecutor is borne by a different person, is styled the accusatorial.
1837. Keightley, Secr. Soc. Middle Ages, 355. The Fehm-tribunals had three different modes of procedure, namely, that in case of the criminal being taken in the fact, the inquisitorial, and the purely accusatorial.
