Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) allows the defense of "failure [of a complaint] to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." The Center conducted the study at the request of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States and its reporter, Professor Paul Carrington. After considering the data in the paper at its April 1989 meeting, the Advisory Committee decided not to change Rule 12(b)(6).

An anthology of Center reports on handling appeals. The editors selected writings from the twenty-five published and unpublished reports on the topic the Center has supported in the last fifteen years. Eighteen of these reports are reprinted in whole or in part. The editors' introductions to each of the book's five parts provide descriptions or summaries of the reports not reprinted.

Introduction: Robert A. Katzman and Michael Tonry

Part One: Case Management, 13

• Introduction, by Robert A. Katzman and Michael Tonry, 15
• An An Evaluation of the Civil Appeals Management Plan: An Experiment in Judicial Administration , by Jerry Goldman, 21
• A Reevaluation of the Civil Appeals Management Plan, by Anthony Partridge and Allan Lind, 89
• The Seventh Circuit Preappeal Program: An Evaluation, by Jerry Goldman, 171
• Administration of Justice in a Large Appellate Court: The Ninth Circuit Innovations Project, by Joe S. Cecil, 207

Part Two: Case Weighting, 293

• Introduction, Michael Tonry, 295
• A Summary of the Third Circuit Time Study, by Division of Research, Federal Judicial Center, 299
• Appellate Court Caseweights, by Division of Research, Federal Judicial Center, 309
• The Cases of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, by Gordon Bermant, Patricia A. Lombard, and Carroll Seron, 337

Part Three: Oral Arguments, Briefs, and Opinions, 389

• Introduction, by Robert A. Katzman and Michael Tonry, 391
• Deciding Cases Without Argument: An Examination of Four Courts of Appeals, by Joe S. Cecil and Donna Stienstra, 397
• Appeals Without Briefs: Evaluation of an Appeals Expediting Program in the Ninth Circuit, by John E. Shapard, 441
• An Evaluation of Limited Publication in the United States Courts of Appeals: The Price of Reform, by William L. Reynolds and William M. Richman, 455
• Unpublished Dispositions: Problems of Access and Use in the Courts of Appeals, by Donna Stienstra, 497

Part Four: Administration, 535

• Introduction, by Robert A. Katzman and Michael Tonry, 537 
• The Impact of the Circuit Executive Act, by John T. McDermott and Steven Flanders, 543
• The First Decade of the Circuit Executive Act: An Evaluation, by John W. Macy, Jr., 629
• Screening Practices and the Use of Para-Judicial Personnel in the U.S. Courts of Appeal: A Study in the Fourth Circuit, by Steven Flanders and Jerry Goldman, 641
• Operation of the Federal Judicial Councils, by Steven Flanders and John T. McDermott, 657
• Administering the Federal Judicial Circuits: A Survey of Chief Judges' Approaches and Procedures, by Russell R. Wheeler and Charles W. Nihan, 691

Part Five: Technology, 743

• Introduction, Michael Tonry, 745
• The Impact of Word Processing and Electronic Mail on United States Courts of Appeals, by Larry Farmer and J. Michael Greenwood, 749
• Follow-Up Study of Word Processing and Electronic Mail in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, by J. Michael Greenwood, 801

A study of the Southern District of California's bankruptcy mediation program. The authors summarize interviews with twenty-six program participants and analyze the first eighty adversary proceedings to come to mediation. They explain the structure of the program and describe the opinions of judges, mediators, and attorneys as to the program's effectiveness.

An evaluation of home confinement as an alternative to imprisonment in the federal system. The authors examined selection procedures and criteria, types of monitoring, the role of probation officers, and other elements of home confinement programs. They reviewed the role of home confinement within traditional models of sentencing as well as the likely impact of the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act (which took effect after the report was written) on the availability of home confinement as a sentencing tool.