He has encouraged judges to be "brave" in tackling economic crime.

This will surely encourage corporations to require secrecy agreements of their employees, encourage judges to consider such suits seriously and encourage the public to believe that the suits are legitimate.

Technically, their national status would not be affected but many fear that such a ruling would only encourage local judges to follow suit, and not only against Jehovah's Witnesses.

Many hoped that the report would encourage judges overseeing the suits to throw out motions to quash them.

If, on the other hand, a pragmatist judge almost invariably applies his new rules retrospectively and encourages other judges to do the same, this will achieve a further, very great benefit for their community.

A key change was sentencing guidelines that encouraged judges to send nonviolent offenders to the least expensive community-based program that would provide a combination of punishment and rehabilitation.

One proposal was to encourage chief judges to refer sensitive cases to another of the 13 federal circuits.

Recent United States Supreme Court decisions have encouraged judges to scrutinize punitive awards, while damages for pain and suffering, and other awards that compensate plaintiffs for losses, are treated with deference.

He said it could encourage other judges to try to control what is written about court cases, even when the journalists are not involved in the litigation.

It also encouraged judges not to jail those who had committed, less serious, nonviolent crimes.