Archivaria 69: Special Issue on Archives and the Law (Spring 2010)

Front cover: "In front of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council entrance on Downing Street," 13 July 1948.

The photograph depicts the Rt. Hon. J.L. Ilsley, K.C., Cyril F.H. Carson, and L.G. Goodenough. The occasion was a hearing in London, England of the Attorney General for Saskatchewan, Attorney General for Canada, and the Mortgage Loans Association regarding the Farm Security Act of Saskatchewan. Unlike judges in most other Commonwealth countries, Canadian judges and lawyers do not wear wigs; their use was abolished in the early twentieth century, although the exact date varies from province to province. The three Canadians depicted here sport wigs in keeping with the sartorial traditions of the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

Credit: Law Society of Upper Canada Archives, 991.001-01P, Cyril F.H. Carson fonds.