You wont be able to tell the crims from the judges.

You wont be able to tell the crims from the judges.

Brief encounters

By Joshua Rozenberg

DAILY TELEGRAPH online 15/05/2008

• I don’t particularly object to the new Star Trek judges’ robes unveiled this week, although I’m not sure why only the women judges get to wear them with a clip-on frilly collar. And I don’t really mind abandoning gowns that date from the time of Edward II (1327-77) or the wigs that judges did not start wearing until as late as the 1680s. But it’s all such a mess. High Court judges will still wear their traditional winter robes, with wigs, when trying crime – even in summer – so it’s goodbye to the miniver, the white coat of the winter stoat. Circuit judges will keep their dark blue robes, dating from 1919, and colour-coded sashes, dating from 1971, though when hearing civil cases they will turn up wigless and collarless – including, presumably, the women. The Old Bailey will no doubt remain a law unto itself. Nobody knows whether advocates will continue to wear wigs in front of judges who do not. And by the time the new robes come in, 16 years after the Government launched its public consultation, the Lord Chief Justice who pushed for them to be introduced will have left to a launch a court where the judges will probably not wear robes at all.