This article examines the use of public oral hearings at Germany's Constitutional Court. It develops a formal model analyzing when courts employ these hearings and how they affect rulings against elected officials.
* The Core Question: How do public hearings influence court behavior?
* Strategic Function: The model suggests hearings serve as tools to address potential noncompliance issues.
Key Findings:
* Courts strategically use public oral hearings according to their predictions of compliance or noncompliance by the parties involved.
Real-World Significance:
* This research demonstrates how constitutional courts actively shape public perception and potentially enforce constitutional adherence through these high-profile procedures.
Context (Germany):
* The analysis focuses specifically on practices at Germany's highest constitutional court, providing empirical evidence for the model.
| The Politics of Judicial Procedures: The Role of Public Oral Hearings in the German Constitutional Court was authored by Jay Krehbiel. It was published by Wiley in AJPS in 2016. |
