ABSTRACT
The importance of ritual, symbolism and theatre within the English criminal justice system has been widely recognised. 1 Until fairly recently, it was common to portray courtrooms as solemn, dignified and sombre environments that were designed to control certain emotions. The structural and spatial design of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century courtrooms, the formal and ritualistic nature of trial proceedings, and the costumes and apparel worn by courtroom personnel have all been acknowledged as showcasing and legitimising the majesty of the law, symbolising state authority and buttressing the status quo. 2 Justices would sit on a raised platform to reinforce the law’s supremacy and their own status, wigs and robes would be adorned to convey authority, and courtrooms would be spatially and socially demarcated to be ‘physically and psychologically imposing’. 3 Trials were awe-inspiring spectacles akin to public theatre designed as much to convey wider social messages as to administer justice. Lawyers and justice officials were central actors in the court and in shaping the production of the criminal trial, 4 reflecting a criminal justice system that was very much weighted in the interests of men of property.
