Here's a tip for anyone needing to escape the chilly start to the English summer: visit London's flagship business and property courts. Despite the temporary addition of some warehouse-scale airconditioners, parts of the Rolls Building continue to feel like the tropical greenhouse in Kew. Shirt sleeves (though, we're glad to say, not shorts) were definitely rig of the day in courts near the top of the atrium buildng this week.
Luckily High Court chancellor Sir Julian Flaux is offering some respite. In a practice note on 'excessively hot court and hearing rooms' in the Rolls, he has directed that, unless a judge rules that advocates be robed, 'wigs and gowns will be dispensed with until the end of the Trinity Term'. Whether robes are worn on the bench is a matter of choice for the judge.
Despite the piloted return of robing in the family court, could this be the beginning of the end for legal fancy dress? The lady chief justice has so far declined to enter the debate. Along with judicial titles, reform is 'unbelievably tricky', she told the Bar Conference at the weekend.
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