China investigated 783 judges who violated laws and disciplines in 2010, a decrease of 1.51 percent year on year, said Wang Shengjun, China's chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Friday.

Of the 783 judges, 540 were disciplined, and 113 were given criminal penalties for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, down 4.09 percent and 17.52 percent respectively, said Wang when delivering a report on the work of the SPC to the Fourth Session of the 11th National People' s Congress.

The SPC has introduced a regulation requiring judges whose spouses and children are lawyers in the same jurisdiction to take jobs elsewhere, according to Wang's report.

The SPC also drew up regulations on preventing court officials from hampering the justice of trials.

In the same year, China investigated 267 procurators, and 38 of them were given criminal penalties, said Cao Jianming, China's Procurator-General, when delivering a report on the work of the Supreme People's Procuratorate at the same meeting.