Medieval courts were not always concerned with keeping the courtroom strictly human. Sometimes the accused arrived with fins, scales, and no obvious legal representation.

Justice, but make it aquatic

Accounts of animals being formally accused were not unheard of in Europe. The rituals borrowed the language of ordinary law: a charge, a hearing, and occasionally a punishment.

Whether anyone expected the animal to understand the proceedings is less clear. The ceremony was often as important as the verdict.

A useful kind of absurdity

These stories reveal how seriously communities treated order, even when the defendant was impossible to cross-examine. History is full of systems that become funniest when followed perfectly.