03.06.2007
On February 20, 2007, the Rule of Law Initiative, in collaboration with the Philippines Judicial Academy and the University of the Philippines Institute for Judical Administration, launched the publication of the Annotated Philippine New Code of Judicial Conduct, a practical guide for judges in the Philippines that provides case law to explain the various provisions of the new judicial code of conduct adopted in 2004. The event was held at the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno and Associate Justice Leonardo S. Quisumbing provided remarks.
The code of conduct is based on the Bangalore Principles, the international standard for judicial ethics. Six local experts wrote the annotations to the six canons, providing local case law to support the implementation of the code. A U.S. Federal Court of Appeals Judge aided in editing the annotation and also added relevant international and U.S. case law. The Rule of Law Initiative printed 2,000 copies of the annotation for distribution to all justices, judges and professors of legal ethics in the Philippines.