China chief justice calls for new code of conduct to address court corruption News
China chief justice calls for new code of conduct to address court corruption

[JURIST] Public trust in the Chinese judiciary needs in be restored in the face of court corruption and systemic failures to implement court orders, according to a report by the China's chief justice submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress [official websites] Monday. The report says that 800,000 court orders remain unimplemented by the courts due to negligence or bribery, and other statistics disclosed by China's People's Daily show that over 461 judges were punished for graft-related offenses in 2004. Addressing the Standing Committee, Chief Justice Xiao Yang [official profile] announced [press release, in Chinese] a three-year reform plan focusing on implementing a strict code of conduct for local judges.

Last week, Chinese President Hu Jintao called for an end to judicial corruption [JURIST report] while four top Chinese judges face trial on charges of accepting bribes to fix the outcomes of cases in Anhui province. The People's Daily has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

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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.

Congress recognized Pledge of Allegiance

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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