Regulation on court promotions 'too rigid'

A regulation that has led to judge-lawyer couples divorcing to enhance their promotion prospects triggered heated discussion among national legislators.

The regulation, issued by the Supreme People's Court in February 2011, states that a judge whose spouse or child is a lawyer will be barred from promotion for certain positions, such as chief judge of a tribunal, said Li Yalan, a deputy to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

Li, a lawyer at Heilongjiang Long Dian Law Firm, said she knows couples in which the judge has divorced his lawyer wife so he will be considered for a promotion.