ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is about the administration of courts, both currently and how the courts and their administration might change and grow through the bulk of the 21st century. It explains how to address some specific issues faced by administrators. The book examines policy not practices, functions not tasks, goals not operations, and approaches not solutions. It explores the "environmental" conditions in which court administration is practiced: courts as the third branch, courts' role in society, and court funding. The book, explores judges' administrative roles and how judges' judicial and administrative roles fit and do not fit with management. It also examines the qualities and skills needed by a court administrator, particularly those that are not covered in The National Association for Court Management's Core Competencies.
