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The Times
January 12 1999

 

Wigs give law a bad name, says judge

BY FRANCES GIBB

ONE of the most senior judges in England has called for the abolition of wigs, which he says are "positively damaging to the image of the civil justice system".

Sir Richard Scott, who as Vice-Chancellor is head of the High Court Chancery Division, says that wigs present a picture of the law that is "antiquated and foolish".

He also castigates judges who want to keep wigs as behaving like "diehards who still wear top hats in the hunting field" out of a "hankering for the past and for tribal badges of status".

Wigs, Sir Richard says, make judges appear to be out of touch with the country inhabited by the litigants before them and also make remarks of the "Who is Gazza?" variety seem typical, rather than an aberration.

"The wearing of wigs allows, almost encourages, a cruel parody of the judicial process and of the judges who preside over it. They are also uncomfortable, scratchy and of questionable hygienic quality, even if they no longer provide a home for a variety of tiny animals."

Sir Richard, who was born in South Africa, makes his remarks in the Inner Temple yearbook. A hunt follower, he has already staged a revolt over the wearing of top hats in the hunting field. He wore one with reluctance until the early 1980s, when a friend wearing a top hat was killed while hunting.

Lord Irvine of Lairg, the Lord Chancellor, has protested about the wearing of his wig as Speaker of the House of Lords, complaining that it "weighs a ton".

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