China top judge pledges to eliminate judicial corruption News
China top judge pledges to eliminate judicial corruption

[JURIST] The Supreme People's Court [official website, in Mandarin] of China will take steps to eliminate judicial corruption, according to a report delivered Tuesday to second session of the Eleventh National People's Congress [official website] by Chief Justice Wang Shengjun [official profile, in Mandarin]. Wang reported that that 712 court officials were punished for misconduct in 2008 and that such corruption has negative social impacts [Xinhua report] and affects the credibility of the courts. He said that the Supreme People's Court would take measures to lessen such corruption with improved ethics education.

In October, the Chinese legislature removed the vice president of the Supreme People's Court [JURIST report] without explanation, although there were allegations of a scandal. In January 2007, the Communist Party of China (CPC) [official website] promised to confront government corruption after former Chief Justice Xiao Yang called for judicial reform [JURIST reports] to regain the public's trust. Several months later, Xiao Yang applauded the reform [JURIST report] that had been achieved.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Indian National Congress founded

The Indian National Congress (INC) was founded on December 28, 1885 in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. In subsequent decades, the so-called Congress Party would advocate for Indian independence from the UK, which was eventually achieved in 1947. The first Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was elected as a member of the INC. Learn more about the history and founding of the Indian National Congress.

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On December 28, 1945, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance and encouraged its recitation in schools. The Pledge was supposedly written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day. The words “under God” were added by Congress in 1954. The revised version of the Pledge was the subject of litigation before the United States Supreme Court originally brought by Michael Newdow, a parent who unsuccessfully objected to his daughter's school district policy requiring daily recitation of the Pledge. The court ruled that Newdow had no standing.

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