Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- THE RELATIONSHIP RIGHTS OF CHILDREN
- Introduction
- 1 Why Rights for Children?
- 2 The Existing Relationship Rights of Children
- 3 Paradigmatic Relationship Rights
- 4 Why Adults Have the Relationship Rights They Do
- 5 Extending the Theoretical Underpinnings of Relationship Rights to Children
- 6 Rebutting Defenses of the Status Quo
- 7 Implementing Children's Moral Rights in Law
- 8 Applications
- Appendix: The Conceptual Possibility of Children Having Rights
- Notes
- Index
8 - Applications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- THE RELATIONSHIP RIGHTS OF CHILDREN
- Introduction
- 1 Why Rights for Children?
- 2 The Existing Relationship Rights of Children
- 3 Paradigmatic Relationship Rights
- 4 Why Adults Have the Relationship Rights They Do
- 5 Extending the Theoretical Underpinnings of Relationship Rights to Children
- 6 Rebutting Defenses of the Status Quo
- 7 Implementing Children's Moral Rights in Law
- 8 Applications
- Appendix: The Conceptual Possibility of Children Having Rights
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Having developed a general theory of children's moral rights in connection with state decision making about their relationships, and having worked out a number of details and answered a number of objections, I proceed now to consider concrete ways in which the law might be reformed to conform to children's moral rights. Explaining the specific proposals I offer below will help to reiterate theoretical points made in earlier chapters. The proposals are tentative, because my aim was not to amass all the empirical information relevant to the legal issues I discuss but rather to develop a theoretical framework for addressing them. A fuller investigation of all the empirical issues relevant to a child-centered reformation of the law would help to refine the proposals.
I do not attempt a comprehensive code of children's relationships rights here. I focus on three particular areas of the law to illustrate the conclusions of the normative analysis. Parentage laws in many countries now pay little or no heed to the welfare of children, and they are the ultimate cause of so much suffering for children and of so many societal problems that they cry out for reform. Legal rules for responding to inadequate parenting (i.e., abuse and neglect laws) are, in the United States and elsewhere, a quagmire of standards and tests that reflect an improper balancing of parents' interests and children's interests.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Relationship Rights of Children , pp. 253 - 290Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006