The Right Decision for the Child
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| Author | Michael King |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2007.00667.x |
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
REVIEWARTICLE
The Right Decision for the Child
Michael King
n
MartinGuggenheim,What’s Wrong with Children’s Rights,xiii þ306pp, hb d18.95,
Cambridge, Mass.Harvard University Press, 2005
INTRODUCTION
Martin Guggenheim’s major achievement in this book is to challenge some treas-
ured beliefs that for over half a century have guided the legalprocess and justi¢ed
decisions in children’s cases. For this reason alone, it should be greeted as an
important contribution to the growing literature on children and the law. No
previous commentators have been quite so devastating in their demolition of the
assertions and assumptions upon which judges, lawyers and expert witnesses rely
concerning the ability of courts to determine what is and what is not in children’s
best interests. Here are some examples:
It is false to suggest that adults are oppressing child ren by developing laws that
restrict [their] l iberties. In many contexts children are in the control of adults for
unassailable reasons.
1
A signi¢cant number of adults who ought to know better have taken far too ser-
iously the importance of furthering the child’s best interests through the complete
investigationa nd resolution of custody disputes. (p. 152)
The one thing that . . . any professional . . . associated with child custody disputes
. . . is sure to emphasize is that their only purpose is to resolve the dispute in the best
interests of the child . . . [T]his is not simply false, it succeeds as a coverupto hide the
degree to which these disputes serve adult interests (p. 143).
Much of judge’s discomfort[in child custody disputes] stems not from their concern
for the children . . . [but] ‘having to accept that their order wi ll gravely hurt the
losing parent (p.156).
The insistence by the chi ldren’srights movement of children’s interests be separated
from those of their parents . . . is its most egregious error (p.13).
n
School of Law, University of Reading.
1M.Guggenheim,What’sWrongwith Children’s Rights(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
2005) 9.Subsequent page references in the text are to this book.
r2007 The Author.Journal Compilation r2007 The Modern Law ReviewLimited.
Published by BlackwellPublishing, 9600 Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ,UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
(2007) 70(5) MLR857^871
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