This report describes the purpose, aspirations, and components of the Federal Judicial Television Network (FJTN), which will reach judges and court staff members with a range of essential educational programs and other communications. The network will use formats that take full advantage of professional television production facilities and skills. The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) aspires to create a network with high-quality production values that provides valuable services to judges and court staff in all categories and provides broadcast quantities sufficient to sustain wide audience interest without disrupting daily courthouse activity.

The network's technical backbone consists of the following:

• the FJC's two broadcast studios: a fully-equipped, broadcast-quality sound stage and a state-of-the-art, automated instructor-presentation studio with a videoteleconference space;
• downlinks the Administrative Office (AO) is installing at court locations to reach the majority of judges and staff;
• transmitter and satellite services leased from existing providers; and
• a viewer response system, preferably the de facto standard of the existing Government Educational Television Network, which provides the broadest range of feedback possibilities and permits incoming data from viewing sites to be summarized and re-presented graphically to the viewing audience.

The FJC has several years of live broadcast and videotape production experience. The AO and Sentencing Commission also anticipate active use of the net­work. The FJC will provide both with program design and production assistance.

Should digital audio recording technology be an approved method for taking the offical record of federal courts proceedings? This report, prepared at the request of the Court Administration and Case Management Committee of the Judicial Conference, summarizes findings from a study of digital audio recording technology as it was used to take the record of court proceedings in six district and six bankruptcy courts. The study was designed to do four things: (1) provide an assessment of the technology by those who use it in court; (2) provide an assessment of the technology by transcriptionists; (3) compare costs, functionality, and benefits of digital and analog recording systems; and (4) collect information to assist the Administrative Office in preparing technical specifications to guide future purchases of equipment.

At the request of the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, the Center conducted a study of the discovery process, examining the extent to which discovery is used, the frequency and nature of problems in discovery, the impact of the 1993 amendments, and whether additional rule changes are needed. This is the report of that study. Submitted to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, for Consideration at its Meeting September 4-5, 1997.

Note: A revised version of this study is published at 39 Boston College Law Review 525 (May 1998) under the title An Empirical Study of Discovery and Disclosure Practice Under the 1993 Federal Rule Amendements.

An analysis of statutory procedures proposed in the early 1980s, and which continue to arise, that would allow federal litigants to challenge, on a peremptory basis, the federal judge or magistrate judge assigned to their case. Prepared at the request of the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules, the report discusses the proposals that have been offered on the federal level, analyzes the procedures then in effect in seventeen state court systems, and considers the possible administrative consequences of a federal peremptory challenge procedure.