It remains unclear what institutional characteristics determine the publication of press releases by constitutional courts. Research has revealed that courts use press releases to disseminate information; however, little is known about when exactly courts choose to publish a press release on a ruling. By focusing on institutional elements, this study argues that press releases form a part of judicial public relations and are used to enhance openness and transparency surrounding specific court rulings. This argument is tested empirically via a novel dataset on the activities of the German Federal Constitutional Court. Based on 1131 senate rulings decided between 1996 and 2018, this study demonstrates that proceeding types and changes to the status quo are the main characteristics that determine the publication of court press releases, whereas intra-judicial and internal conflicts are revealed to be less influential.

中文翻译：

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司法公共关系：宪法法院发布新闻稿的决定因素

目前尚不清楚哪些制度特征决定了宪法法院发布新闻稿。研究表明，法院使用新闻稿来传播信息；然而，关于法院何时选择发布关于裁决的新闻稿却知之甚少。通过关注制度要素，本研究认为，新闻稿构成司法公共关系的一部分，用于提高围绕特定法院裁决的公开性和透明度。这一论点通过一个关于德国联邦宪法法院活动的新数据集进行了实证检验。本研究基于 1996 年至 2018 年间做出的 1131 项参议院裁决，表明诉讼类型和现状变化是决定法院新闻稿发布的主要特征，