Taiwan president promises steps toward new constitution News
Taiwan president promises steps toward new constitution

[JURIST] In his New Year message [text], Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian [official website] promised Sunday to support a new Taiwanese constitution in his last two years of presidency. A new constitution would have to be approved by the legislature before sent to the public for a referendum. Chen's comments come in the face of warnings from China and a split Taiwanese people. Chen's Democratic Progressive Party [Wikipedia backgrounder] was defeated in the December election [BBC report] and Chen was afterward expected to act to appease China, including removal of trade and investment barriers. China has forbidden the creation of a new Taiwanese constitution, which it views as a step toward Taiwan's formal independence. Chen argues that the constitution would create a political system appropriate for Taiwan, and that its aim is not independence. China has claimed sovereignty over the island since civil war in 1949. Taiwan's people are divided [JURIST news archive] on whether it should be independent from China. The Nationalist Party, which defeated Chen's Party in December's elections, favors reunification with China. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.