Court Travesty

And no, I'm not talking about today's Friday the 13th guilty verdict for Lord Black, as much of a travesty of justice that is, having followed it closely over the last four months. I'm talking about the abolition of traditional court dress in civil trials - no more horsehair wigs and wing collars, possibly no more gowns at all for the Queen's Bench in civil cases. Family and civil courts have been instructed to dress down and become more modern. Yo judge! Chill, dude.

I can only echo the words of one commenter on this discussion in the Anglosphere

Alas, yet another historic tradition is abandoned in the name of egalitarian “modernization”.

The dreadful possibility that a member of the court or bar might presume – God forbid – a role of authority is so threatening to modern sensibilities that even the Lord High Justice of Britain’s courts now demands divestment of those articles of attire which separated law officials from “the masses”, lest society risk sliding down the slippery slopes of elitism into the ever-dreaded castes of Calcutta.

Though one would appear foolish to engage in disputations about the fashion tastes of justices, their abandonment of English national history and tradition, in favor of a classless anarchy of courtoom style, so mirrors the growing Marxist ideological winds now afoot across the British landscape that one would be remiss in failing to recognize the similarities between the two – and the sad ideology that underlies them both.

The assault upon these sartorial symbols of national identity is painful to behold, but such sacrificial pragmatism will not be without its own costs – perhaps later rather than sooner, if history is any judge. God save the Queen.

At least the wigs and smocks will stay put in the criminal courts - for now. We can thank the Lord for small mercies.

Read Legal Habits: A Brief Sartorial History of Wig, Robe and Gown