Some people say that in the Middle Ages, overwork and illness made judicial personnel lose their hair prematurely. In order to hide their "glory" in public, wigs became popular, and wearing wigs became a common practice in English courts.
Some people say that judges wear wigs to show their respect, while lawyers wear wigs to a certain extent to cover up and protect them, because they are worried that their defense results will not be recognized by the defendants and their families. But this is not so much a reasonable explanation as a joke made up by people who have a problem with lawyers to slander them. Because according to a recent survey, 57% of lawyers are not satisfied with wearing wigs, and they can't wait to take them off. The reason is that these wig covers made of horsehair are expensive but unsanitary. Usually, a wig will last for a lifetime. One lawyer has an antique with a hair age of 94 years at home, which has been handed down for four generations, and it can be called a family heirloom.
according to the research of historians and folklorists, the popular fashion tradition of wearing wigs in Britain began in the 12th century. At that time, it was not only the patent of judges and lawyers, but also the upper class regarded wearing wigs as a fashion and a formal dress for formal occasions or salons.
connoisseurs point out that wigs used by the judicial department are different from ordinary wigs. In Britain, the wig of the judiciary has three curls on each side, while the wig of the royal family has only two curls. Whether this represents a very subtle metaphorical meaning is unknown. But Scots always have a hard time with the British, because in Scotland, the situation is just the opposite. The wig of the royal family has three curly hair, and there are only two judges.
The labor cost of making wigs is higher than the material cost, because horse bristles are not difficult to buy, and wigs are a delicate job, so it is impossible to mass-produce them by machines or production lines.
It takes a skilled craftsman about 44 working hours to make a wig, including knitting and curling. There are generally four colors of finished products: white, gold, light gray and gray, among which white is very popular in some old British colonies (such as West Africa and the Caribbean), while gold and gray are the most popular in Britain.
A typical judge wig costs more than 1,5 pounds (about 18, yuan), and the most common wig costs no less than 3 pounds.
It is not because ordinary people can't afford to buy more than one wig that they would rather put up with lice than change wigs as often as ladies do. It is based on the argument that the longer you wear a wig, the older, dirtier and darker it is, indicating that the longer you have been engaged in the legal profession, the qualifications and age can be said to be a fortune in the judicial field, just like the old doctors in hospitals are the most sought after. In a sense, the older the wig, the more business lawyers attract, and the judge's retro wig is a symbol of experience.
The best gift for a law student from his family or friends is a wig made by a famous designer after he has obtained the qualification as a lawyer. Many craftsmen who make wigs are inherited from their fathers, even passed down from generation to generation. Their history of making wigs is longer than that of some British nobles.
customizing wigs is also a patient process, because many famous craftsmen have made appointments for several years. Even if you can customize them right away, your brain needs to be measured at least twelve times during this process. This is not because the craftsmen deliberately torture you, but because the exquisite craftsmanship requires you to do so.
Of course, you can also buy one from the shelf, but after all, it's not as gentle as kissing your smart head as a tailor-made suit. Moreover, in the eyes of many legislators, buying a wig casually is as rude as wearing jeans to a solemn banquet. The British people are famous for their conservative spirit, especially the judicial department, which requires accuracy, even rigidity, emphasizes stability and balance, and is not compatible with individuality.
Many wig manufacturers keep records of each wig sold, requiring the buyers to sign for the record. For hundreds of years, the autographs of many famous people can be found in these records, because many famous politicians were mostly practicing lawyers before they became famous.
The storage of wigs is also a meticulous work. Generally, each set of wigs is equipped with a ventilated iron box or wooden box, and some boxes are even another work of art that exists independently, and its value far exceeds the wig itself. At the earliest time, lice were still common in British people. In order to prevent lice, people would sprinkle a layer of powder on their wigs.
the last question related to China is: for a long time, most of the raw materials used in wigs came from China, which was also an important commodity exported by China except tea in Sino-British trade before the Opium War, because the mane of European horses was not easy to spin and was easily broken, and it needed to be bleached and cleaned constantly in the production process, and only the mane of China horses could withstand all these tests.
When you mention a British judge or lawyer, people will naturally think of a gray micro-curly wig. For people outside the legal tradition of the Commonwealth, although wigs have become the iconic features of Commonwealth jurists, such dressing will not give rise to a solemn feeling. On the contrary, there will often be a strange feeling, which will make viewers sweat for them from time to time and worry about whether they will slip with the graceful bows of barristers and make a fool of themselves in court. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, once said, "(British judges) are like mice peeping under cotton wool." This instrument also scared a child who testified in court to cry, which led to the complete abolition of wigs by the special court for juvenile cases in Britain.
the history of wigs can be traced back to a long time ago, and it is recorded in the documents of ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire. However, the popularity of wigs in the upper classes of Europe is generally believed to have started around 162, when Louis XIII wore wigs to cover his baldness, which caused the nobles who frequented the court to follow suit. Later, wigs became very popular in Europe, and even women wore various wigs to attend social occasions. By the 166s, this fashion had spread from King charles ii to the British Isles. Samuel Pepys, an Englishman in the 17th century, was the first person to wear a wig. Samuel Pepys's diary truly records the history of wig popularity in Britain. On November 2, 1663, after pepys learned the rumor that the king and duke would wear wigs, he couldn't wait to shave off his hair and make a wig the next day. Pepys wrote, "It's sad to say goodbye to my hair, but it's over. I'm going to wear a wig.". It can be seen that the popularity of wigs in Britain plays a huge role in the power of role models.
in addition to the role of role models, wigs are popular for another reason. According to Ed and Ravenscroft Factory (EDE&; Ravenscroft) introduced that due to the lack of heating system in Europe in the 17th century, it was inconvenient for people to take hot baths. In order to prevent the breeding of parasites, the best way was to keep short hair and replace it with long vacation hair.
Early wigs were made of human hair, such as the hair used by debtors to pay debts, or even the hair of dead people. At that time, the smell of all kinds of false emanations in the court was mixed together, which was suffocating, and the judges who appeared in court sometimes had to bring their own bouquets to ease the atmosphere. It was not until 1822 that Humphrey Ravenscroft invented the technology of making wigs with ponytails that this situation ended.
It was a fashion for Commonwealth legislators to wear wigs to attend court or major ceremonies at that time, and there was no mandatory legal provision. Hundreds of years later, wigs are no longer fashionable, but become the old-fashioned image that legislators follow the tradition. And the wig is unsanitary, too hot, stinging and even a little funny. However, change is difficult. People habitually associate wigs with status, identity and even justice. Since obtaining the right to appear in court, lawyers have repeatedly appealed to the House of Lords because they are not qualified to wear wigs, but they all ended in failure. Many defendants are also more willing to be defended by barristers who can wear wigs. It is said that wearing wigs is directly related to their ability to convince the jury!
charles ii's era is gone forever, but the fashion at that time-at least as far as wigs are concerned-still seems to be reaching out from the grave, firmly binding contemporary Commonwealth legislators. In 197s, wigs were abolished in Australia, in order to comply with the trend of reducing forms and increasing harmony in family courts. However, in 1987, the wig was restored, allegedly because of several attacks on judicial personnel. In my opinion, this practice in Australia is more caused by traditional ideas, or traditionalists just use these attacks to keep wigs on their heads, which is definitely not the right medicine. Because Britain abolished the practice of wearing wigs for judicial personnel in special juvenile courts in 1992, it seems that there are no disadvantages similar to those in Australia. In 23, Britain conducted another survey on whether to abolish wigs, and found that most senior judges and lawyers wanted to abolish wigs, but junior judges and barristers insisted on tradition. In addition, 68% of the public want judges to wear wigs, especially in criminal cases, which shows that wigs still have a strong symbolic role in representing justice in the eyes of the British public.
Controversy aside, wigs don't seem to disappear from Commonwealth courts anytime soon. Lord Donaldson summed up the debate in a sentence: "Since wigs have been out of date for at least a century, there is no need to rush to abolish them.
Justice needs to be manifested through ceremonies. It is through this unique and specific symbolic image and strong psychological suggestion that wigs arouse people's faith in law and hope for justice. However, there is no shortcut to construct modern judicial culture and even legal culture. The German school of historical law, represented by savigny, believes that the people themselves are slowly promoting the maturity of the law, and the law has no other function except acknowledging the achievements of this historical creation. Historical law school no longer occupies a dominant position, but legal phenomena have little to do with historical accumulation.
References: Sailors' Answers