Sir, – An article, “Judges to end tradition of wearing wigs in court today” (Front page, October 14th) contains a number of factual inaccuracies, rendering the content misleading.
Contrary to what was stated in the article, your readers might like to know the following: 1. The compulsory wearing of wigs by barristers was not ended by the former Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, but, rather, following the adoption of a resolution, which I proposed at a general meeting of the Irish Bar in July 1995. The wearing of wigs in court by barristers became entirely a matter of personal choice when this decision of the Bar was given legal effect by Section 49 of the Court and Court Officers Act, 1995 and the consequential amendment of the rules of court which followed.
2. The meeting of the Superior Courts Rules Committee on October 16th, 2011, did not decide to discontinue the practice of wearing wigs by judges when sitting in court, rather the committee decided to end the mandatory requirement that the judges do so. This was achieved by statutory instrument amending the rules of the superior courts which now makes the wearing of wigs by judges, when sitting in court, optional, thereby affording to them the same right in this regard as has been enjoyed by barristers since 1995. All of the Judges of the Superior Courts and Circuit Courts and each new judge appointed to these benches will be free to decide whether or not to wear a wig when sitting in court.
3. As it is already the law (see Section 49 of the Court and Court Officers Act, 1995) that barristers and solicitors shall not, when appearing in court, be required to wear a wig, there is no necessity to incorporate such a provision in the Legal Services Regulation Bill.
4. Ireland, along with the UK is not one of the few countries in the common law world where judges still wear wigs, rather it remains the practice in many of the common law countries of the commonwealth of nations and including some of the African republics. – Yours, etc,