California State University, Sacramento
Department of Public Policy and Administration
PPA 298A&B:
California Judicial Administration Fellowship Seminar
Fall & Spring 2004-05
The purpose of this course is to complement the Fellow’s placement in the California Judicial Branch with a “toolkit” of theories that are useful for making sense of the management challenges facing court leaders.
The lack of a general theory of judicial administration means that we are forced to put together our own. There are three levels of concepts that we will use to do so:
The challenge for the Instructor and the Fellows is to knit together these three levels into a coherent and theoretically informed understanding of what judicial administration means and how it should be practiced.
Toward this end, here are three tips on preparation for the seminars:
The instructor will not review or recap the reading. It is up to the Fellow to learn the material prior to the seminar. (In fact, you should think about getting ahead on the reading in the first couple months: the November seminar follows quickly after the October one, and there’s lots of reading for November.)
We will use the seminar time to move beyond the readings: applying and critiquing them – especially in the context of the Fellows’ experiences in their placements. A large part of your grade for seminar participation is based on demonstrating your ability to bring the readings to bear on your Fellowship experiences. This means that you are strongly encouraged to take as broad as view as possible of your Fellowship – within, of course, the boundaries set by your Mentor. Early in the course, we will begin discussing together how to get the most out of your placement.
Policy Memo
The major project for year is a policy memo. This paper is to be done on a specific policy issue of your choosing. It should be an issue that interests you, which is current, and which has upcoming choices that can or should be made. There will be class discussions about the format and procedures on this paper, which follows the structure outlined in Robert P. Biller, Juliet Musso, and Robert Myrtle, Tradecraft: Writing in Public Policy. The format of such a policy issue paper is quite different from that of a traditional term paper.
You are to write the paper with a specific REAL client identified for whom the issue is relevant. Your client must have some “standing” in the issue: someone who has an interest, or has some relevant authority, or has some other impact on the issue. It is with this specific client in mind that you will draft your analysis, recommendations, and action plan. It is likely, but not required, that your mentor will be your client. It is also likely, but again not required, that your policy memo will capture the work of the major project you are doing for your mentor.
The policy memo is to be action oriented and is to provide a specific recommendation that you come to see as important and worth doing on the issue you have identified. The memo will provide a brief summary of the problem on which the issue is focused and the context within which that problem is set, a review of the pros and cons of the major alternative choices that are feasible, and some of the necessary implementing steps that would be needed to achieve the recommendation's accomplishment.
The first draft of the memo should be a FULL, if rough, draft of the complete paper that touches, however briefly, on each of the major sections. Guidelines for the structure of the policy memo can be found in the Tradecraft reader.
You are free to suggest your own policy topic. To get you started thinking, here are some issues that are percolating in most courts:
A suitable topic for a policy memo would be something like the following: “Recommendation to establish a Homeless Court in the XYZ Superior Court.”
Short Papers
A number of short papers are required to give you a jump-start in thinking through questions at issue in the upcoming class. These are deliberately too short: the questions typically call for more than the page limit allows. This forces you to sharpen your argument and get to the point. Please do so.
Discussion Questions
For each seminar, Discussion Questions are provided. We will discuss these during the seminar. It is a good idea to read the Discussion Questions before you do the reading; they will help you focus on the important parts of the readings.
Grading
Class Schedule
October: Introduction to Judicial Administration
Note: When you read this historical progression of views from Pound (1906), to Friesen (1971) and then Tobin (1999), notice not only the differences – but also the similarities, even though nearly 100 years have passed!
November: Courts as organizations
Short paper assignment #1 (2 pages maximum): Should a court be run like a corporation? Why/not?
Also due: One-page brief description of likely Policy Memo topic.
December: Managing the work of the courts
Due: Policy Memo proposal. Must include: Problem Statement, Policy Alternatives, list of possible sources of information about pros and cons.
January: Accountability and the external control of the courts
Note: Over the next two sessions, our discussion will revolve around one basic question: To whom should the courts be accountable and for what?
February: Assessing the work of the courts
Due: Short paper assignment #2 (2 pages maximum): What does “quality” mean in the courts? How would we know it when we see it?
March: Therapeutic jurisprudence, collaborative justice and problem-solving courts
Note: Friesen, Gallas and Gallas give us an overview of the sorts of social welfare functions courts have long grappled with. The other readings update and extend this to new functions.
Short paper assignment #3 (2 pages maximum): Should the courts take on functions pertaining to the welfare of convicted criminals? Why/not?
April: Court-community relations and community courts
Due: First draft of Policy Memo.
May: The budget crisis
Short paper assignment #4 (2 pages maximum): Should the courts use a “pay as you go” system? Why/not?
June: What’s next?
Short paper assignment #5 (2 pages maximum): What is the most important way in which judicial and management leaders in the court must start thinking differently about judicial administration?
July (no seminar meeting): Final draft of Policy Memo due (date to be announced)