[Mark22091]

Perhaps not normal - but quite usual. In some courts (Magistrates', Coroner's, Civil and Family Courts) wigs and robes are not worn. But in the higher criminal and county courts they remain - a hangover from the Seventeenth - Eighteenth centuries, when wigs were the fashion. The black robes of barristers were adopted at the beginning of the Eighteenth century when the nation was in mourning for Queen Anne. - I guess they liked the look so much they stuck with it. By 'colonial' dress, I guess you mean the way we dressed when North America was a British colony - which would be about the time that our court dress froze in time. It is still the norm in much of the rest of the Brtitish Commonwealth - though Canada stopped the wearing of wigs. There has been recent consultation by government on getting rid of these archaisms, but, if you'll forgive the pun, the jury is still out. There are many judges and barristers who value the gravity and solemnity that the dress lends to proceedings, and not a few who also appreciate that changing into modern dress at the end of a trial renders them harder to recognize when leaving the building.

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Name : Mark22091, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 40+, City : Oxford, State : NA Country : United Kingdom, Social class : Lower middle class, 

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