Short Stuff: Wigs in English Court

What's the deal with the wigs in the English court system? Learn all about it in today's short stuff. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey there, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh,
and there's Chuck and there's Jerry. Let's get to it.
Why do you lawyers were wigs in Britain? Go? You
know what's funny is when I was researching this, it's
really funny to me to look at modern pictures of
these And I don't want to make fun of it,
but it is funny in two thousand nineteen to look

(00:28):
at photos of barristers and judges wearing powdered wigs. Just
let me say that out loud before did you just
say that out loud? Like you see them outside? There's
pictures smoking a cigarette on their on their smartphone wearing
these wigs, right playing. Um, before we get started, a Chuck,
I want to differentiate between a barrister and a solicitor,

(00:53):
which I did not know until today actually in difference. Yeah,
I thought maybe one was like a defensive ernie and
one was a prosecutor like we have here in the US. Um,
that's not the case. A solicitor is like the lawyer
that you go meet with outside of court, uh and
maybe advises you on family and children matters, or bankruptcy

(01:16):
or divorce or something like that, and then they might
negotiate contracts that kind of thing. But then when you're
in court, you're represented by a barrister, and the barrister
works with the solicitor to understand your case. But it's
the barrister who's petitioning the court on your behalf. So
they're both working like for the people, they're not prosecuting somebody.

(01:38):
But that's the difference. One of the other differences, at
least one of the most obvious and apparent differences between
a barrister and a solicitor is that you don't see
solicitors wearing wigs. You do see barristers wearing wigs. So
that's a short stuff within a short stuff, the difference
between barristers and solicitors everybody. That's just an s s.
It's so short. So to the wigs, there are a

(02:02):
lot of reasons are called Peruke's um that over the years,
and we'll get to the whole fashion of the whigs
in a minute too, but uh, there are several reasons
why they wore them to begin with him. While they
still might wear them in certain cases. Um one of
the main reasons is to give it a more formal proceeding, um,
a more solemn proceeding. Another big reason is it's a

(02:25):
safeguard almost like and that I've seen the word disguise used.
It's very bad disguise because it's just the wig. Oh yeah,
I hadn't noticed that. But in the in criminal court,
they it's supposedly lends to anonymity, these robes and wigs.
So where if this criminal sees their attorney on the
street six months later, they might be like, I don't

(02:47):
even recognize the guy. He looks familiar, but if only
he had a powdered wig on, I might be able
to knife them in the tube. Can't quite place him.
So uh, that is sort of what they represent. And um,
they have been a part of the court system over there,
um not forever, but since what year? Uh, since six

(03:08):
five at least. Yeah, previously that they didn't use these wigs,
which is interesting. It is interesting because at the time
wigs were already all the rage in Europe and had
been for a few years. But I guess the court
system was like, no, we're going to not take part
in this ridiculous fashion trend. And I guess just portraits

(03:29):
from the early sixteen eighties even um just showed like
people without wigs on, and then all of a sudden, bam,
wigs start showing up in the portraits. And they've been
there ever since, even long after wiggs fell out of fashion.
I mean wiggs were only fashionable for less than a
hundred years, actually far less than a hundred years, No,

(03:50):
about a hundred years, let's say, And then and then
they were gone, and the British court system wherever it
popped up around the world, um hung onto these wigs
for another like two hundred, three hundred years. Yeah, and
there you know, as far as the whigs themselves, uh,
you can get a little bit of variety, but it's

(04:11):
not like you can walk in there with your rainbow
afro wig, um, John. They're generally similar barristers have you know,
it's a little little frizzed at the top. They have
the horizontal curls on the side and the back and
then the very very back the mullet section. You have
these two long strips um below the hairline with a

(04:35):
little looped curl. The the judges themselves have the much
more ornate wigs that's more full, um very long, yeah,
super long. These are the one you know. That's how
you can tell the difference. When you see the the
dude with a big, huge, full long wig, that's a judge.
When you see the little little one sitting on top,
standing outside the court house with your smartphone and your cigarette,

(04:58):
that's a barrister and the judge. His wig looks very
very much like a seventies rocker hair. Do if you
step back and look at it? Yeah, like really, I'm
trying to think of who, like maybe like a tour
manager for led Zeppelin or something like that. All right, maybe,
although he famously did not have long hair, but sure

(05:18):
who Phil Graham? He was ball on top? Was that
his name? He was the promoter? Okay? Phil Graham was alright,
well man. He used to stick people up. He would say, like,
if if you don't give us an extra hundred thousand dollars, uh,
my boys aren't going on stage, like five minutes before
they were supposed to go on. He was pretty legendary
piece of work. So as far as the wigs, oh

(05:39):
they're expensive. Um. Judges can throw down about three grand
on a wig. Um. The barristers may spend anywhere from
five hundred to a thousand. These are dollars, not pounds. Yeah, yeah,
and uh, they're made of horsehair. UM. Traditionally have always
been made of horse hair if you can afford it. Um,
just because of tradition. It's not like horse hair is
some super valuable thing, but some have been made through

(06:02):
other things like goats hair or just cotton, or maybe
a dead human or or even a live human. Uh.
At the time, back in the day, humans would donate
their long white hair kind of like locks of love.
But rather than you know, for people who have survived cancer,
it's for the courts. And rather than for love, it's

(06:26):
for money. So it doesn't really bear that much of
a resemblance although hair was involved. But the the horse hair,
it's like you said, it's not prize. It's this tradition.
That's what they were made out of originally, and that's
why they continue to be made out of. UM. But
that's not to say they're just like thrown together. These
are UM remarkably well made where they're supposed to be.

(06:48):
For for a very long time, they were very well made,
UM artisan crafted wigs. All right, let's take a break.
We're gonna come back and talk a little bit more
about the history of these wigs, and while on Earth
they're still wearing them right after this as why skol

(07:15):
definite should ski all right, So the history of wigs here. Uh,
it may surprise you to know that a big reason
these wigs started to be worn is because syphilis was rampant. Yeah,

(07:41):
it seems like everybody had syphilis. Yeah. And one of
the things that could happen when you have syphilis, aside
from blindness and rashes and dementia and open source as
you can lose your hair. So what it maybe unfairly
because male pattern baldness is a thing anyway, if you
lost your hair and you're a prominent person, but a

(08:02):
lot of people probably looked at you and said, well
he got syphilis. Yeah. Plus, at the time, long hair
on men was very much in fast and that does
not go well with syphilis if you're if you're balding.
So wiggs came into play, and they might not have
come into play as strongly as they did had it
not been for Louis the fourteenth, the King of France,
the same king who um they believe had syphilis, and

(08:27):
he started wearing wigs himself. He reigned from sixteen forty
three to seventeen fifteen, and he was a huge trend setter.
So when he started wearing these powdered wigs, everybody started
wearing powdered wigs, and not just in France and not
just among his court, but in courts and the aristocracy
and the upper classes of all of Europe, including in England,

(08:49):
which was rained by Charles the Second at the time,
who was the cousin of Louis the fourteenth. And also
maybe he had syphilis. Yeah, syphilis. Everywhere you get syphilis,
you get syphilis, you agains hyphilis. Uh. And like you said,
it spread through all of aristocracy. Um, finally it fell
out of fashion over time. Um that like you said, well, yeah,

(09:11):
didn't take that long for the whigs to fall out
of fashion, would you say, less than a hundred years. Yeah.
By by the time King George the Third, who was
presiding over England during the American Revolution, when he was
in charge, it was really just basically, um, Coachman, bishops,
and I believe the court and in the eighteen thirties

(09:32):
the church or the Anglican Church that bishops don't need
to wear those anymore. I don't know when Coachman stopped
wearing them, but then like we're with the bishops, right,
then the courts are um. They just kept it up
from that point on. Yeah. So finally in two thousand
seven there was a court challenge, UM, an actual like
suit brought forward to say can we not wear these
wigs anymore? And there was a ruling that said, uh

(09:56):
that that technically did away with barrister whigs, but entirely
because that was only in civil court um or appearing
before the Supreme Court. But in criminal cases they were like,
keep those wigs on everybody, and I believe they still do, right. Yeah,
that's what I couldn't quite figure out. Like I read

(10:17):
like in this article it says until two thousand eleven
when the practice was discontinued, Well that was with judges.
Oh okay, alright, that makes more sense now, barristers in
two thousand seven, judges in two thousand and eleven. But
I believe that in criminal cases both barristers and judges
are still required to wear wigs or else it's a
real affront to the decorum of the court. Yeah. Like

(10:38):
I was reading articles from last year that talked about
the fact that they were still trying to get it
not mandatory for criminal cases, but I think they are
still wearing them and it had a sweeping effect, like
everyone around the world that had that worked in the
legal system of a country that was a former British colony,

(10:58):
whether in Africa, whether also Astralia, whether Canada, or just waiting.
Actually I think Canada did away with him before, but
it's like they were just waiting to pull these wigs off. Um,
Jamaica got rid of their's in two thousand thirteen, Australia
got rid of their's finally in two thousand ten. So
whatever lawsuit that was in two thousand seven, that had sweet,
like literally global effects. Yeah. I mean one of the

(11:22):
articles I read talked about in England the heat they're
in the summertime heat. Yeah, in the summertime, these rogues
and these wigs, they were like that, it's just like
it's a problem and they just should just file a
petition or whatever. That just says to whom it may concern,
Come on, this is ridiculous. It's two thousand nineteen the end. Yeah,

(11:45):
we look silly. Yeah, although in Hong Kong they they
are still with it from what I understand. So if
you want to go see your lawyers and your judges
wearing traditional wigs. Go to Hong Kong. I think it's
the upshode of the shorts. Yeah, go commit a crime
in Hong Kong. There you go. Um, thanks a lot

(12:05):
for joining us. If you want to get in touch
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