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Childhood in Liberal Theory: Equality, Difference, and Children’s Rights

Online ISBN:
9780198932246
Print ISBN:
9780197267769
Publisher:
British Academy
Book

Childhood in Liberal Theory: Equality, Difference, and Children’s Rights

Published online:
23 January 2025
Published in print:
27 June 2024
Online ISBN:
9780198932246
Print ISBN:
9780197267769
Publisher:
British Academy

Abstract

Children are systematically treated differently as political and legal subjects owing to their assumed weaknesses, incapacities, and special needs. How does this differential status fit in with the principles of justice that structure our society, law, and morality? Any theory of justice that deserves its name ought to be able to give an appropriate answer to this question. Despite an exponential growth in the literature on childhood and justice, a systematic study on the equal moral and political status of children is absent. Childhood in Liberal Theory fills this gap and offers a novel look at the concept of ‘childhood’ and children’s rights within the tradition of liberal theories of justice. It aims to answer the following questions: Should the concept of ‘childhood’ be revised to ensure its compliance with liberal principles of justice? What does a theory of rights require in order to accommodate to the needs of a revised conception of ‘childhood’? And how should the just treatment of children be effectively implemented in terms of their status as rights-holders and their unique claims? The book proposes an ambitious deconstruction of the concept of ‘childhood’ and an Adaptive model of children’s rights as the most just way of including children within liberal discourses on justice.

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