Islamists defend morals law before Pakistan Supreme Court News
Islamists defend morals law before Pakistan Supreme Court

[JURIST] Government officials from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province [official website] defended their controversial morals law [JURIST report] before the Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] on Wednesday. Earlier this week, the government argued that the law was unconsitutionally vague and would be abused [JURIST report], with some observers comparing it to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Islamists in charge of the province today argued that the bill does not violate the constitution and asked rhetorically if it was wrong to ask people not to do wrong things. A ruling is expected later this week. Reuters has more. From Pakistan, the Frontier Post has local coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

First US life insurance company incorporated

On January 11, 1759, America's first life insurance company was incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers was established by Presbyterians to support the families of their ministers. In 1988, the company's name was changed to the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund. The company later became Covenant Life Insurance Company before being acquired by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company in 2002. Read a history of the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund from the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

Treaty ended Anglo-American claims, courts in China

On January 11, 1943, the United States and Great Britain relinquished by treaty their extraterritorial claims in China. This abandonment effectively ended the jurisdiction of the extraterritorial United States Court for China (established 1906) and the British Supreme Court in China. Read more about the United States Court for China, which one scholar has called "probably the strangest federal tribunal ever constituted by Congress," in a short online history of the US Ninth Circuit.