THE TRIAL: A History, from Socrates to O.J. Simpson. By Sadakat Kadri. 459 pages. Random House. $29.95.

Among the earliest concepts that took form in human civilization was that some method needed be in place to compensate for wrongs done by one individual or group to another. Man is a clever, often manipulative social animal, however. How, then, is the word of one against another to be judged? Who speaks truth and who is bending truth to suit their designs?

The oldest laws yet found - Babylonian law, enacted by Hammurabi in the 18th century BC - already addressed the question of false witnesses. From the beginning, our tendency toward deceitfulness needed to be factored in. In "The Trial," Sadakat Kadri, a practicing English barrister and qualified New York attorney, considers the course of Western civilization's methods of justice throughout history. More, he does so with a snappy, engaging prose style that keeps the pages turning.

He walks the reader through cold Icelandic valleys ringed by lava cliffs and rivers, where Law Speaker, lawyers and jurors alike kept massive axes at the ready should the legal proceedings suddenly become more, well, intense. Trials, he reminds the reader, did not steadily evolve from reasoned argument in the Greek tradition. For many years, particularly following the adoption of Christianity as the dominant Western religion, trial by combat or by ordeal replaced intellectual argument. It was assumed that God would sort the innocent from the maleficent.

The path of the legal system also follows the advance of oration. From Cicero to Clarence Darrow and Johnnie Cochran, those who have a way with words can catch the ears and sway the decisions of jurors.

The art of blinding with brilliance and baffling with substances decidedly less brilliant is discussed in detail as are famous cases aplenty. Witch trials - English, Continental and in the colonies - fill many pages. Here, too, is Nuremberg, Lt. William Calley, Bernhard Goetz and the Moscow Show Trials.

Absorbing throughout, "The Trial" makes a superb lay introduction to legal proceedings. Where we are today, the book might argue, might be understood by retracing how we got here.