
Contents
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1 Infant, Child, and Adolescent Development and the Law: Intersections, Interactions, and Influences
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The Legally Constructed Status of Adulthood The Legally Constructed Status of Adulthood
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The Age of Majority: A Brief History The Age of Majority: A Brief History
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Legal Effects of Majority: An Overview Legal Effects of Majority: An Overview
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Exceptions to the Age of Majority Exceptions to the Age of Majority
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Adulthood Deinstitutionalized Adulthood Deinstitutionalized
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Structural Influences on the Transition to Adulthood Structural Influences on the Transition to Adulthood
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Sociocultural Conceptions of Modern Adulthood Sociocultural Conceptions of Modern Adulthood
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Cognitive and Socioemotional Development From Adolescence Through Emerging Adulthood Cognitive and Socioemotional Development From Adolescence Through Emerging Adulthood
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Dismantling the Categorical Age of Majority Dismantling the Categorical Age of Majority
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Context-Specific Competence Context-Specific Competence
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Assessing Capacity: Lessons from Existing Law and Science Assessing Capacity: Lessons from Existing Law and Science
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Conclusion Conclusion
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References References
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17 Rethinking the Age of Majority
Get accessVivian Hamilton is a Professor of Law, Founding Director of the William and Mary Center for Racial and Social Justice, and an affiliate faculty member of the William and Mary Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program. Her research focuses on K–12 education and the rights of adolescents and emerging adults, and her work has been published in the Boston University Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, University of Georgia Law Review, and others. Professor Hamilton has been elected to the American Bar Foundation and American Law Institute and has served as Chair of the Section on Family and Juvenile Law of the Association of American Law Schools. She earned her BA in History from Yale College and JD from Harvard Law School.
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Published:18 December 2023
Cite
Abstract
Young people today come of age in a cultural and economic milieu that prolongs their attainment of the traditional markers of adulthood. Their subjective conceptions of the transition to adulthood depart radically from the traditional conception, with its emphasis on discrete transition events (e.g., marriage and entry into the workforce). Instead, the modern transition to adulthood is a gradual process consisting of the acquisition of general capabilities, rather than the achievement of externally constructed events. The state-established age of legal majority stands in marked contrast to this gradual and prolonged process. Thus, the legal construction of adulthood is starkly at odds with its social and cultural constructions. This chapter argues that abandoning the presumptive age of legal majority in favor of context-specific rules advances the state’s liberty-respecting ends and better aligns the legal and sociocultural constructions of adulthood. The developmental and behavioral sciences can and ought to supplement more traditional policymaking considerations.
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