- The Guardian,
- Tuesday May 13 2008
Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, wearing the new civil gown designed by Betty Jackson. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA Wire
The lord chief justice yesterday modelled the new bare-headed look which will prevail from October 1 when judges hearing civil and family cases in England and Wales consign their 300-year-old horsehair headgear to history.
From the autumn, most judges will adopt a simple continental-style black gown designed by Betty Jackson.
The move has been pushed through by the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, who has long believed that judges' fusty headgear and antiquated garments should be consigned to the dressing-up box. He and his recent predecessors have argued that the outdated apparel contributes to public attitudes that the judges are out of touch with ordinary life.
But he failed to convince judges hearing criminal cases, who claim that wigs add to the dignity of proceedings and confer an anonymity which stops villains recognising them out of court.
Wigs will continue to be worn by high court judges and circuit judges presiding over criminal cases. High court judges, who have different sets of robes for winter and summer, will wear just one set of red robes for criminal cases, and the new civil gown for family and civil cases.
Circuit judges - the tier below the high court - will lose their wigs for civil cases but will retain their current gown and tippet rather than moving to the new robe.
Jackson, a former designer of the year, worked for free as the design consultant for the new gown, in consultation with a panel of judges. The new robe has coloured bands to indicate seniority, with heads of the high court's four divisions and appeal court judges wearing gold bands and high court judges wearing red. Judges will no longer wear wing collars and bands for civil and family proceedings.
The new robes will incur a one-off cost of £450,000 but are expected to save £200,000 a year in kitting out judges.
When he decided to simplify judges' garb, the lord chief justice expected barristers to follow suit. But the profession has been fighting to retain its traditional wig and gown. The Bar Council has twice consulted with its grassroots and has still not announced whether it intends to come into line with the judges.
The consultation has revealed a profound attachment by barristers to their wigs, with well over half wanting to keep their traditional dress for cases in
the House of Lords, court of appeal and high court.
"There is a strong belief in the need for dignified attire to be worn by advocates in the setting of the courtroom," according to the consultation report.
Judges in Britain's highest court, the House of Lords, wear no wigs and gowns but may adopt a simple black gown when it becomes the supreme court in October 2009.
Successive lord chancellors consulted the public twice on possible reform of court dress since the early 1990s but took no action. It was left to the lord chief justice, who took over as head of the judiciary in 2005, to bring the judges at least part of the way into the 21st century.