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Howard Cohen, Equal Rights for Children. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1980, Pp. x+ 172.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

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Abstract

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Type
Book Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1981 

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References

1 John Holt, Escape from Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1974); Richard Farson, Birthrights (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974). For Farson's more recent thoughts on children's rights, see Richard Farson, The Children's Rights Movement, in LaMar T. Empey, ed., The Future of Childhood and Juvenile Justice 35 (Charlottes-ville: University Press of Virginia, 1979).Google Scholar

2 Joel Feinberg, Social Philosophy (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1973); William K. Frankena, Some Beliefs About Justice, in Joel Feinberg and Hyman Gross, eds., Justice: Selected Readings 48 (Belmont, Cal.: Dickenson Publishing Co., 1977).Google Scholar

3 See, e.g., California's Emancipation of Minors Act, Cal. Civ. Code §§ 60–70 (West Cum. Supp. 1981); Illinois' Emancipation of Minors Act, 111. Rev. Stat. ch. 40, §§ 2201–2211 (1979).Google Scholar

4 See generally Franklin E. Zimring, Privilege, Maturity, and Responsibility: Notes on the Evolving Jurisprudence of Adolescence, in Empey, supra note 1, at 312.Google Scholar

5 U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 349, Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1979, at 26 table 4 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1980).Google Scholar

6 Cohen asserts that some rights impose affirmative obligations of performance on others and uses this to account for the obligations that child agents would have to children. Actually, Anglo-American law has very few examples of rights that impose such obligations on others. Interestingly, the one area where rights are thought to give rise to obligations of performance is within the family. A spouse has a right to support that imposes an obligation of support on his or her wealthier spouse; a child has a right to support that imposes a duty of performance on both his parents. But these kinds of rights are not necessarily compatible with the equal rights model. Certainly the parental obligation of support would be weakened, at least in those cases where children choose to live apart from their parents. At any rate, Cohen's treatment of this concept is wholly superficial; his single discussion of European good Samaritan laws simply highlights the lack of such rights in Anglo-American law. Equal Rights, at 81.Google Scholar

7 Id. at 72.Google Scholar

8 Id. at 62–65.Google Scholar

9 Id. at 110.Google Scholar

10 Id. at 111 (emphasis added).Google Scholar

11 Id. at 72 (emphasis in original).Google Scholar