Most British judges to toss courtroom wigs

Judges in most British courts will finally stop living in the 17th century by discarding their horse-hair courtroom wigs (pictured).

While judges in criminal cases will still wear them, those in civil and family hearings will appear bare-headed in court, wearing a new-style plain black robe, the government said.

Wigs have been an emblem of the British legal system since the 17th century when the fashion for wearing them in wider society filtered through to the courts.

John Mortimer, the barrister and author of the Rumpole of the Bailey books, opposed the changes.

“The idea's ridiculous! A barrister without his wig would be like a doctor without a stethoscope,” he wrote in a newspaper article when the changes were first proposed.

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