NEWS RELEASE

The National Center for State Courts
300 Newport Avenue · Williamsburg, Virginia  23185
www.ncsconline.org

Nation’s Chief Justices to Meet in San Francisco 

January 19 – January 21, 2004
San Francisco, CA

Williamsburg, VA  (Jan. 09, 2004) – Forty chief justices from the states’ highest courts are gathering in San Francisco January 19 - 21, 2004 to discuss a variety of topics affecting state courts. The Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) meets twice a year for a series of educational sessions that tackle issues affecting procedures, rules, and operations of the courts. The media is invited to attend but must register. Please contact Lynn Holton, public information officer for the California Judicial Council at 415-865-7726 or Lorri Montgomery, NCSC communications manager at 757-259-1525, for more information. An agenda is attached. 

CCJ brings together the highest judicial officers from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The National Center for State Courts, headquartered in Williamsburg, Va., serves as executive staff for CCJ and coordinates its meetings.

Key conference topics include:

• The New Frontier of Electronic Discovery: Questions and Answers. This session focuses on the implications of the surge in discovery of electronic information on the fairness and cost of judicial proceedings, and the orders, rules, standards, and principles being developed to address the problems created by e-discovery.

• The Impact of NAFTA on State Court Judgments – Welcome to the Age of Treaties, Chief Justice: You’ve Been Overruled. This session will discuss the implications for state and federal courts of two recent decisions, including whether there has been a delegation of Article III authority, what directions the emerging Chapter 11 jurisprudence may take in the future, and what the inclusion of Chapter 11-type provisions in post-NAFTA trade agreements may mean for the American judiciary.
• Principles of Effective Judicial Governance and Accountability. In this session faculty will introduce several issues related to judicial branch governance and facilitate a discussion on the importance of these issues to preserving the third branch of governance.

CCJ President Ronald M. George, California Chief Justice and chair of the National Center’s Board of Directors, will preside over the conference. During opening ceremonies Jan. 19, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will present opening remarks.

In addition, Warren Christopher, former U.S. Secretary of State and author of “Chances of a Lifetime – A Memoir,” will speak during a reception the evening of Jan. 19.

The National Center for State Courts is a non-profit, court reform organization with offices in Williamsburg and Arlington, Va., and Denver, Co., that provides education, training, technology, management, and research services to the nation’s state courts. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, along with CCJ, founded The National Center for State Courts in 1971.