Childhood in Liberal Theory
Equality, Difference, and Children's Rights

9780197267769, OUP/British Academy

Hardback, published 11 July 2024

320 pages, 2 figures
24 x 16.2 x 2 cm, 0.608 kg

Children are systematically treated differently as political and legal subjects due to their assumed weaknesses, incapacities, and particular needs. How does this differential status fit in with the principles of justice that structure our society, law, and morality? Despite the growth of philosophical research on childhood and children's rights during the last decades, there has been no systematic study on the moral and political status of children in liberal political theory. Childhood in Liberal Theory fills this gap, and offers a novel look at the concept of 'childhood' and children's rights within the tradition of liberal theories of justice. Brando proposes an ambitious deconstruction of the concept of 'childhood', and an Adaptive model of children's rights as the most apt way of including children within liberal discourses on justice.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]