Scholarship Repository @ University of Massachusetts School of Law

Title

A Review of What's Wrong with Children's Rights: Still a "Slogan in Search of a Definition"

Authors

Justine A. Dunlap, University of Massachusetts School of Law - DartmouthFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

The negative side of government intervention on behalf of children is a primary focus of New York University Law Professor Martin Guggenheim's book What's Wrong with Children's Rights. In this interesting book, Professor Guggenheim is always instructive and often provocative. As a consequence, he has written a book worth reading.

This book review essay will begin by offering an overall assessment of the book. It will then analyze two separate components of Guggenheim's book. First, it will evaluate Guggenheim's assertion that, absent a demonstration of parental unfitness, parental decision-making regarding their children is "virtually immune from state oversight." Second, this review will explore Guggenheim's critical view of children's advocates and the role they play in securing rights for children.

Comments

Originally published by U.C. Davis Journal of Juvenile Law & Policy in 2007.

Recommended Citation

Justine A. Dunlap, Book Review: A Review of What's Wrong with Children's Rights: Still a "Slogan in Search of a Definition', 11 U.C. Davis J. of Juv. L. & Pol. 181 (2007).