Children: Rights and childhood is widely regarded as the first book to offer a detailed philosophical examination of children's rights. Drawing on a wide variety of sources from law and literature to politics and psychology, David Archard provides a clear and accessible introduction to a topic that has assumed increasing relevance since the book's first publication. Divided clearly into three parts, Children: Rights and childhood covers key topics such as: * John Locke's writings on children * Philippe Aries's Centuries of Childhood * key texts on children's liberation and rights * a child's right to vote and to sexual choice * the rights of parents and the state over children * defining and understanding child abuse. The second edition has been fully revised and updated including a new preface, a new chapter on children's moral and legal rights, taking into account the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and a new chapter on children under the law, taking changes in European law into account.

Table of Contents

1. John Locke's Children Part 1 2. The Concept of Childhood 3. The Modern Conception of Childhood Part 2 4. Liberation or Caretaking? 5. Arbitrariness and Incompetence 6. Children's Rights to Vote and Sexual Choice 7. The Wrongs of Children's Rights Part 3 8. Bearing and Rearing 9. Family and State 10. Parental Rights to Privacy and Autonomy 11. Collectivism 12. The Problem of Child Abuse Conclusion: A Modest Collectivist Proposal Notes Bibliographical Essay

Author Biography

David Archard is Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at Lancaster University.