Contents
Thomas W Church, ‘The American
Court Manager: A Quest for Professionalism’
E Keith Stott Jr, ‘The Judicial
Executive: Toward Greater Congruence in an Emerging Profession'
Ernest C Friesen, Edward C Gallas
& Nesta M Gallas, 'Managing the Courts Chs I & III'
Judge John N Kirkendall, Seven Habits of Highly
Effective Judges (2001)
40(2) Judges Journal 30-32
Thomas W Church, ‘The American Court Manager: A Quest for
Professionalism’ Australian Institute of Judicial Administration,
1990
Court manager – profession
Professor Church presented this paper to a group of Australian court
administrators in 1990. It describes the history of the profession of
court management in the USA between 1969-1990. Chief Justice Warren
Burger launched the concept in 1969, the Institute of Court Management
of the National Center for State Courts was established in 1970. Church
describes the passive style of management the new profession replaced,
where ‘judges resolved disputes when the parties and their lawyers
asked them to do so’. The paper argues that non-judicial court
staff must be involved in court management because judges do not have
the time or the expertise to manage effectively. The ‘hallmarks’
of a professional are defined as ‘special knowledge’, encouraged
by funding for research and for the publication of specialist journals,
and the availability of the profession as a career.
Links
Warren Burger, ‘Foreward’ (1981) Justice System Journal
162
Ian R Scott, ‘The Future of Judicial Administration’ Australian
Institute of Judicial Administration seminar 1985
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E Keith Stott Jr, ‘The Judicial Executive: Toward Greater
Congruence in an Emerging Profession’ (1982) 7 Justice System
Journal 152
Court manager – profession – partnership with judges
Court management is best shared between judicial and administrative
managers. Courts are complex organizations, but as professional bureaucracies
they are different from business organizations and have dual lines of
authority for professional and support staff. A collegial, shared management
structure is proposed, with overlapping fields of responsibility for
judicial and administrative staff. Problems of role ambiguity. Executive
training is required for both sets of managers.
Links
Henry Mintzberg, The Nature of Managerial Work Harper & Row,
New York 1973
- concepts of team management
Henry Mintzberg, The Structure of Organizations Prentice Hall, Englewood
Cliffs NJ 1979
- managers in professional bureacracies – their power can be overwhelmed
by the collective power of the professionals – theoretical framework
to understand the management of professional organizations.
David J Saari, ‘New Ideas for Court Administration: Applying
Social Science to Law’ (1967) 51 Judicature 82
- first to reject the business analogy for managing courts –
categorized them as professionally dominated organizations similar in
structure to hospitals, universities and schools.
Russell R Wheeler, ‘Broadening Participation in the Courts
through Rule-Making and Administration’ (1979) 62 Judiciature
289
- differentiation of management roles in courts – technical, managerial
and institutional – broader training demands – preparation
and training of judicial executives.
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Ernest C Friesen, Edward C Gallas & Nesta M Gallas, Managing
the Courts Chs I & III, Bobs-Merrill Co., USA, 1971
Judicial independence – role of the courts – court processes
– adversary system - court management – tolerable delay
- specialist, interdisciplinary training
The authors recall Roscoe Pound's warnings of 1906 about administrative
inefficiency threatening judicial independence, exacerbated now by increasing
caseloads and mounting backlogs. They argue the need for efficient court
management systems, requiring specialist training and understanding
of the professional nature of the organization. The constraints imposed
by the courts’ role in government, their responsibility to do
justice in every case and a necessary emphasis on fair process are discussed
in the context of desirable management systems. The impact of adherence
to the adversary system on management is examined, also criteria for
the appointment, payment and removal of judges. A total systems concept
of management is proposed. One conclusion reached is that ‘a distinction
exists between delay that is desirable, that is tolerable, and delay
that is destructive and dysfunctional’.
Links
Roscoe Pound, ‘The Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction with the
Administration of Justice’ (1937) 20 Journal of American Judicature
Society 178 and (1962) 46 Journal of American Judicature Society
55.
Speech of 1906 in which Pound recognized administrative inefficiency
in courts as threatening to judicial independence.
Carl Baar, Professor of Politics, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario,
Canada, ‘The Emergence of the Judiciary as an Institution’,
paper "The Model Judiciary" at the Third Asia-Pacific Courts
Conference, Shanghai, China, October 7, 1998
The author examines the emergence of a set of roles and responsibilities
common to the judiciary as an institution world wide. Despite national
differences in ideologies and political systems this paper explores
the extent to which all courts share a basic commitment to judicial
independence and impartiality, the rule of law, and institutional effectiveness.
The author suggests practical steps that courts should consider to improve
their performance as institutions and reinforce their commitment to
core judicial values.
http://www.ncsc.dni.us/ICM/cedp/online/January/baar.html
Judge
John N Kirkendall, 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective Judges' (2001)
40(2) Judges Journal 30-32
Judge Kirkendall applies the work of Steven Covey (Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, 1990) to the
work of judges, with reference as well to the 18 rules of behaviour
on the bench developed by Lord Matthew Hale, Chief Justice of England
(1609-1676) and reported in Lord John Campbell's Lives of the Chief
Justices of England, Vol.1 547-548 (1858).
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