The Relationship Rights of Children

Description

This book presents a sustained theoretical analysis of what rights children should possess in connection with state decision making about their personal relationships which the state does in numerous aspects of family law, including paternity, adoption, custody and visitation, termination of parental rights, and grandparent visitation. It examines the nature and normative foundation of adults' rights in connection with relationships among themselves and then assesses the extent to which the moral principles underlying adults' rights apply also to children. It concludes that the law should ascribe to children rights equivalent (though not identical) to those which adults enjoy, and this would require substantial changes in the way the legal system treats children, including a reformation of the rules for establishing legal parent-child relationships at birth and of the rules for deciding whether to end a parent-child relationship.

James G. Dwyer received his JD degree from Yale Law School and a PhD in philosophy from Stanford University. He taught at the University of Wyoming School of Law and Chicago-Kent School of Law. He has worked as an attorney in law firms in Washington, DC and as a law guardian representing children in family court in upstate New York. He has published several articles and book chapters on children's rights in law journals such as The California Law Review and the North Carolina Law Review. He has written two books - Religious Schools v. Children's Rights and Vouchers Within Reason: A Child-Centered Approach to Education Reform.