This is because the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (aka the Law Lords) didn’t wear any special costume because they weren’t actually judges; they were a committee of specially appointed peers exercising the judicial functions of the House of Lords. When the UK Supreme Court was created the judges (the 1st batch being former Law Lords) kept up the tradition rather than design new robes.
Not since 1876 they weren’t.
In Scottish courts, they probably wear tartan wigs. None of these effete white ones for them.
No, because if I did, one would pop out and strangle me with a sheep intestine.
Beatcha’ to it.
Plus my clip is longer for full effect.
You land on the beaches of normandy holding nothing but a set of bag pipes and a pocket knife while the guy at the other end has nice things like MG42’s and we can discuss what is or isn’t mighty
And that’s the thing: as funny as these wigs and gowns might look on TV, they are actually pretty intimidating in reality and no doubt frequently make witnesses or the defendant flustered.
Furthermore, on TV it’s a good thing if a witness is spooked because then the truth comes out, but in real life it’s more likely to make a truthful witness come across as confused.
And a note from Canada:
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Provincial Court - Business suit.
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Queen’s Bench (or equivalent): business suit for chambers; gown, waistcoat & tabs (but no wig) for trials.
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Court of Appeal: business suit for chambers; gown etc. for appeals.
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Supreme Court of Canada: gown, etc. for appeals.
Special faux-silk gown and waistcoat with cuffs if you have a QC.
I like Canada because your Supreme Court dresses like actual Santa Clauses.
Apparently it’s a facet of bagpipe history, that the Irish gave the Scots the bagpipes around 600AD and the Scots still haven’t caught on to the joke.
Mel Gibson.
There Court dress is based off the High Court of England and Wales judges Court dress.
The colour red has been linked with the senior judiciary in England and later British colonies for centuries. Forexample in Kenya. Even counyries who have gotten rid of the old High Court judges style Court Dress have retained at least some red, for instance Pakistan. I think India is the only one which has gotten totally rid of it.
Hold your horses there, all I said was I like them. No need to jump down my throat.
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Ireland totally got rid of it back in the 1920s.
Somewhat ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court is the only court in America where you’ll find attorneys wearing formal morning coats. By tradition, the Solicitor General (the Department of Justice lawyer appointed to represent the federal government in the Supreme Court) or his/her deputies wear morning coatswhen appearing in Court for oral arguments.
Elena Kegan (current Supreme Court Justice) opted not to wear a morning coat during her tenure as Solicitor General, but she’s the only SG to not have done so.
Am not. I liked them too. Then I actually had to wear them. Middle of summer, in a stuffy Court, sweating bullets, the damn thing itches. I often used to get a rash along the cap line.
Don’t miss wearing it at all.
“Pattern”? That there, son, is not a “pattern”. That is a family tartan. Probably of Clan Buchanan.
(But, yes, he should not be wearing his tartan on his tie because ties are evil and need to be outlawed.)
This implies that the Supreme Court had a long tradition of wearing legal dress, but isn’t the Supreme Court itself less than 8 years old?
Scottish judges also wear wigs and gowns. In fact, even more elaborate ones than English judges.
Full dress
Less extreme version