A legal procedure found in countries with common law systems, in which the two parties to a legal case confront one another in court. According to the procedure, the burden of presenting evidence falls on each of the parties. (In a criminal trial, these are the prosecution and the defence.) Evidence is presented in turn by the parties or their representatives, and there is an opportunity for each side to question the other through cross-examination. The role of the judge is to act as an umpire to ensure that the trial is conducted according to correct legal procedure, and to evaluate the evidence presented by each side. The adversarial procedure lays emphasis on the oratorical skills of the advocate, in contrast to the inquisitorial procedure, found in civil law jurisdictions.