Judging the Judges: The Image of the Judge in the Popular Illustrated Press

This chapter considers the depiction of the judge – figurehead of the law – in the popular illustrated press. In an era when mass legal culture was being formed, legal matters were not confined to the professional law periodicals but were a regular feature of both local and national newspapers, and the extensive level of such reportage meant that judges were often subject to intense popular scrutiny. Judges figured in illustrated pages on celebrities in The Strand, and in sketches in Punch and other satirical journals. Their complex representation is contrasted with that of barristers, and their treatment as moral arbiters examined.