Since 21 December 1970, a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court may publish the dissenting opinion he or she held in the deliberations. This Sondervotum, separate opinion, is printed with the decision. When it was introduced, it was very controversial, because many feared the court would lose authority. In practice it stays rare. Of 1,714 decisions in volumes 30 to 101 of the court’s official reports, 108 carried a separate opinion. The council of economic experts that advises the federal government, the Wirtschaftsweisen, has the same rule by law. A minority with a different view may state it in the report. Peter Bofinger, a member from 2004 to 2019, often disagreed with his colleagues and wrote minority opinions in several reports. In 2017, he wrote: Im Rat der fünf Wirtschaftsweisen gibt es zu viel Konformismus und zu wenig Minderheitsvoten. (In the council of the five economic sages there is too much conformity and too few minority opinions.)