What Is Right for Children?: The Competing Paradigms of Religion and Human Rights - Hardcover

Worthington, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754674193 ISBN 13: 9780754674191

Publisher: Routledge, 2009

Synopsis

Combining feminist legal theory with international human rights concepts, this book examines the presence, participation and treatment of children in a variety of contexts. Specifically, through comparing legal developments in the US with legal developments in countries where the views that children are separate from their families and potentially in need of state protection are more widely accepted. The authors address the role of religion in shaping attitudes about parental rights in the US, with particular emphasis upon the fundamentalist belief in natural lines of familial authority. Such beliefs have provoked powerful resistance in the US to human rights approaches that view the child as an independent rights holder and the state as obligated to proved services and protections that are distinctly child-centred. Calling for a rebalancing of relationships within the US family, to become more consistent with emerging human rights norms, this collection contains both theoretical debates about and practical approaches to granting positive rights to children.

About this title

Review:

'Drawing together an impressive list of international contributors, What Is Right For Children? reshapes our thinking about the relationship between children, Human Rights and religion. Divided into three insightful sections encompassing topics such as juvenile justice, child protection, education, and parental rights, it will appeal to anyone interested in how cultural contexts shape debates about children, families, and governmental obligations. Passionate and timely, you'll want to read every chapter.' Richard Collier, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK 'This unique collection enriches the dialogue around the US refusal to embrace the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Provocative chapters grapple with the legal and policy implications of differences between religious and human rights' principles of personhood. What Is Right For Children? is an essential touchstone for all who care about children's rights.' Nancy Dowd, University of Florida, USA

About the Author:

Martha Albertson Fineman is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law at Emory Law School. She is an internationally recognized law and society scholar and a leading authority on family law and feminist jurisprudence. She is founder and director of the Feminism and Legal Theory Project, which was inaugurated in 1984 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The Project has since followed Professor Fineman to Columbia and Cornell, where she also held tenured faculty appointments, including the first Chair in the country in Feminist Jurisprudence. In addition to directing the Feminism and Legal Theory Project, Professor Fineman has published extensively on issues relating to family law, and feminist jurisprudence. She has received awards for her writing and teaching and has served on several government study commissions. She teaches family law, feminist jurisprudence, law and sexuality, and seminars on reproductive issues and select topics in feminist legal theory. Fineman is also a board member of Veteran Feminists of America and serves on the Transforming Community Project, an initiative aimed at improving racial relations and education on race scholarship at Emory. Karen Worthington is the founding director of the Barton Child Law & Policy Clinic at Emory Law School, where she directs the Clinic; supervises faculty, fellows and students; and teaches child advocacy. She has spent her career specializing in children's law and policy development. In addition to directing the Clinic since 2000, Professor Worthington directed the Southern Juvenile Defender Center from 2001-2005 and serves as a senior fellow with the Center for Study of Law and Religion at Emory Law.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0754674193
• ISBN 13: 9780754674191
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 462
• Editor: Fineman Martha Albertson