Fortin's Children's Rights and the Developing Law

Now fully revised and updated, this classic textbook is unique in its use of children's rights to evaluate law and policy affecting children's lives.

Rachel E. Taylor (Author)

9781108446938, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 February 2024

792 pages
24.4 x 17 x 4.1 cm, 1.39 kg

'The fourth edition of Children's Rights and the Developing Law is certain to maintain this book's long held and deserved reputation as the leading scholarly text in the UK on children's rights. The book presents a meticulous analysis of international and domestic law, critically exploring, with reference to theory and research, law's engagement with children's rights across a wide range of issues. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in children's rights.' Stephen Gilmore, Professor of Family Law, University of Cambridge

The notion that children constitute an important group of rights holders has gained increasing acceptance both domestically and internationally. Nevertheless, this rhetorical commitment to children's rights is not necessarily realised in practice. Now in its fourth edition, Fortin's Children's Rights and the Developing Law explores the extent to which law and policy in England promotes or undermines the rights of children. Fully revised and updated, this textbook uses current research on child development and welfare to reflect on the extent to which the law fulfils children's rights in a wide range of areas, including medical law, education and child poverty. These developments are measured again the domestic law and the UK's international obligations under, for example, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

1. Theoretical perspectives
2. International children's rights
3. Children's rights in domestic law
4. Children's rights within the family: parental rights and responsibilities
5. The child's right to identity
6. The child's right to respect for family life: the right to know and be brought up by parents
7. Parents' decisions and young children's health rights
8. The child's right to education: parental choice and plural values
9. Adolescent autonomy
10. Leaving home, rights to support and emancipation
11. Adolescent decision-making and health care
12. The child's right to participation in family proceedings
13. Children's rights and state responsibility: public authorities and poverty
14. The right to education: participation in school
15. The child's right to protection from harmful treatment
16. The child's right to protection in state care and to state accountability
17. Conclusion – themes and the way ahead.

Subject Areas: Family law [LNM]