This comprehensive Commentary presents a contemporary legal perspective on the inherently interdisciplinary field of children's rights. Chapters analyse each article of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, along with its Optional Protocols, providing contextualised information on the interpretation and implementation of the children's rights provisions therein. A detailed introduction examines the history of the Convention and places it within the wider landscape of human rights and other disciplinary approaches such as the sociology of childhood. The Commentary critically engages with the text of the Convention, exploring commonly used concepts and defining pertinent terminology. The authors draw on multiple perspectives and refer to disciplines outside of law to enrich the analysis of the articles, their interpretation and the study of children's rights as a discipline. Featuring examples of case law from regional human rights systems this Commentary provides a well-rounded insight into the status of children's rights on a global scale. Written in an accessible style, this Commentary will be a valuable reference work for students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers alike. The Commentary will be of great interest to those working within children's rights law and human rights law. Researchers in politics, sociology and international studies who are seeking further information and insight on the rights of children will also find this Commentary to be a useful point of reference.

This title was first published in 2002: Becoming Delinquent: British and European Youth, 1650-1950 provides a critical synthesis of the growing body of work on the history of British and European juvenile delinquency. It is unique in that it analyzes definitions of and responses to, disorderly youth across time (from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-twentieth centuries) and across space (covering developments across Western Europe). This comparative approach allows it to show how certain themes dominated European discourses of delinquency across this period, not least panics about urban culture, poor parenting, dangerous pleasures, family breakdown, national fitness and future social stability. It also shows how these various threats were countered by recurring strategies, most notably by repeated attempts to deter delinquency, to divide responsibility between the state, civil society and the family, and to find a "proper" balance between moral reform and physical punishment, between care and control.

This title was first published 2000: The great mobility of people and capital in the world today means that the likelihood of a person acquiring and dying with assets in more than one jurisdiction is probably greater than ever. As a result an English lawyer is now more and more likely to encounter a multinational estate. This book aims to examine the international aspects of succession primarily from the perspective of an English lawyer, but utilizing in addition to English cases and materials, cases and materials from other common law jurisdictions, particularly, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The body of case law and materials from these jurisdictions forms a valuable resource for dealing with common problems. They also form the basis for an evaluation of developments in the subject generally and the possible impact of conventions designed to achieve uniformity in the rules of private international law relating to succession. This examination will be of interest to practitioners as well as to those concerned with the subject in an academic environment.

This title was first published in 2002: After outlining the origins and development of family mediation on a world-wide basis, this book assesses family mediation services in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, within the context of the empirical and theoretical debates surrounding the practice. It is the first comprehensive study of the area in Ireland, appearing at an opportune time, due to the expansion of the service in the Republic and its virtual collapse in Northern Ireland. It argues that the service provided in the Republic of Ireland is appreciated by clients and is successful, although the issue of domestic violence remains. In contrast, it suggests that the absence of service provision in Northern Ireland is problematic, since it undermines consumer choice.

This title was first published in 2002. Gender has become a culturally laden signifier. Sometimes used to differentiate the social from the biological, gender itself has become gendered. In common parlance gender issues often slide inexorably into women's issues and are in that way designated as marginal and outside the concerns and lives of ordinary men and women. In this book, signifiers such as gender, worker and family are unpacked and suggestions are made as to how common usage of these signifiers reinforce existing practices and act as barriers to change. Some of these changes are legal, others are social and others are driven by political and policy agendas. By looking at five areas: equal opportunity law, family law, industrial relations law, social welfare law and taxation law, which are all profoundly gendered, the author examines ways in which men and women see their roles and choices and how these are related to the state, as citizens. The author then examines the definition of citizenship and looks in detail at the concept of the unencumbered citizen, who is unencumbered by interpersonal obligations, responsibilities and beliefs, using comparative material from Australia, North America and the United Kingdom.

Black Bottom Stomp tells the compelling stories of nine seminal figures in American music history, including Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton. Through them it shows how ragtime and popular dance music fed into and changed the development of early jazz. The stories range from the frustrations Scott Joplin faced trying to be taken "seriously" as a composer to the changes that Jelly Roll Morton made to adapt to musical times and tastes. Richly illustrated with rare photographs, sheet music, and other hard-to-find sources, the work will appeal to the reader interested in popular music, ragtime, and early jazz.

This title was first published in 2001. Making decisions about the care and protection of children who appear before the courts is complex. Attention must be paid to the best interests of the child, the child's need for their family, community views on parenting, and concern about welfare intrusion into family life. Magistrates have a unique authority to make, or reject child protection orders - yet the criteria they use to decide a protection order, how they understand the information presented to them in court and the factors that influence their discretion and decision-making have, until now, been little known. Presenting the findings of a study undertaken at Melbourne Children's Court, this book offers a much-needed investigation of how magistrates actually make child protection decisions. Case examples highlight this decision-making and the book thus offers practical assistance to professionals working with children in the legal process.

This text presents an overview of the major issues and topics in current developments in Indian family law. Indian law has produced a number of very important innovations in the past two decades, which are also highly instructive for law reform debates in western and other jurisdictions. Topics discussed are: marriage, divorce, polygamy, maintenance, property and the Uniform Civil Code.

Routledge Lawcards are your complete, pocket-sized guides to key examinable areas of the undergraduate law curriculum and the CPE/GDL. Their concise text, user-friendly layout and compact format make them an ideal revision aid. Helping you to identify, understand and commit to memory the salient points of each area of the law, shouldn't you make Routledge Lawcards your essential revision companions? Fully updated and revised with all the most important recent legal developments, Routledge Lawcards are packed with features: Revision checklists help you to consolidate the key issues within each topic Colour coded highlighting really makes cases and legislation stand out Full tables of cases and legislation make for easy reference Boxed case notes pick out the cases that are most likely to come up in exams Diagrams and flowcharts clarify and condense complex and important topics '...an excellent starting point for any enthusiastic reviser. The books are concise and get right down to the nitty-gritty of each topic.' - Lex Magazine Routledge Lawcards are supported by a Companion Website offering: Flashcard glossaries allowing you to test your understanding of key terms and definitions Multiple Choice Questions to test and consolidate your revision of each chapter Advice and tips to help you better plan your revision and prepare for your exams Titles in the Series: Commercial Law; Company Law; Constitutional Law; Contract Law; Criminal Law; Employment Law; English Legal System; European Union

Focusing on juvenile transfer and disposition evaluations, this volume provides an up-to-date integration of current law, science, and practice with respect to juvenile risk assessment, treatment needs/amenability, and sophistication-maturity. Included are perspectives relating to international practices, use of specialized assessment tools, and a separate chapter on resentencing following US Supreme Court decisions on juveniles sentenced to mandatory life without parole. This text will be a useful and comprehensive reference for forensic psychologists and other mental health professionals engaged in juvenile evaluation, as well as legal professionals, juvenile and criminal justice professionals, and others involved with juvenile assessment, decision-making, and rehabilitation.

Several jurisdictions have attempted to render divorce more harmonious by abolishing matrimonial 'fault' and facilitating the resolution of divorce disputes by mediation. In Britain, these provisions appear in the Family Law Act 1996. The book presents a challenge to the underlying assumptions that conflict and the adversarial system are undesirable. Its focus is on adults' experiences of divorce. In a series of interviews, divorcing people told their own stories of divorce. The personal narratives revealed that divorce can be emotionally traumatic, but it has positive sides too. The emotions of divorce are not pathological , but are readily explicable as ordinary human coping strategies , in the context of the real material privations that many divorcing people suffer. These coping strategies often involve conflict and acrimony. From a psychodynamic perspective, it is argued that these are integral, and psychologically necessary, aspects of the divorce process. This book is particularly topical in the light of the recent decision of the British Government to postpone the implementation of the Family Law Act 1996 and the acknowledged need for research to inform policy.

Police response to incidents of intimate partner violence can be critical. This volume investigates the elements in the institutional, legal and organizational context that are relevant for police response to incidents in the realm of the private sphere and whether there exists a relation with the reporting of such incidents by victims. Addressing this complex question requires insights from research, policy and practice and, as such, any conclusions will have implications for each of these fields. This volume addresses issues that are key elements in the relationship between the (legal) response to family violence and the reporting by victims. These issues concern societal and legal definitions of family violence employed in research, policy making and legal practice; how the legislation of various countries covers violence in the private sphere; the way the police deal with reported incidents of intimate partner violence; and the role that other interventions play in the response to and combat of family violence and intimate partner violence.

First published in 1997, this book marks a culmination of a three year research programme focused upon the incidence of domestic violence in Leicester. The study examined the levels of violence, the details of applicants and respondents and the nature of complaints, as well as the policies applied and the problems faced by those enforcing the law. The books sets the findings in the context of the policies on protection of victims of domestic violence, the problems they face and protection after 1997. This book will be of interest to those studying law, social work, sociology and women's studies.

Contemporary European societies are multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, certainly in terms of the diversity which has stemmed from the immigration of workers and refugees and their settlement. Currently, however, there is widespread, often acrimonious, debate about 'other' cultural and religious beliefs and practices and limits to their accommodation. This book focuses principally on Muslim families and on the way in which gender relations and associated questions of (women's) agency, consent and autonomy, have become the focus of political and social commentary, with followers of the religion under constant public scrutiny and criticism. Practices concerning marriage and divorce are especially controversial and the book includes a detailed overview of the public debate about the application of Islamic legal and ethical norms (shari'a) in family law matters, and the associated role of Shari'a councils, in a British context. In short, Islam generally and the Muslim family in particular have become highly politicized sites of contestation, and the book considers how and why and with what implications for British multiculturalism, past, present and future. The study will be of great interest to international scholars and academics researching the governance of diversity and the accommodation of other faiths including Islam.

Feminist Perspectives on Child Law is a collection of interdisciplinary socio-legal essays which explore the complex relationship between childhood,gender and the law. Drawing on a wide range of feminist and critical theories and empirical research, these original essays challenge the gender neutrality of law; they explore the shifting constructions of childhood by law, legal practice and popular culture; and they provide critical and timely insights into the complex relationship between adults and children. The essays go beyond the traditional boundaries of child law within the law school curriculum and within legal practice by addressing a wide range of issues, such as health, criminal justice, education, sexuality and domestic violence. By approaching these issues in innovative ways, the essays question the impact of gender on social and cultural understandings of childhood and on contemporary interpretations of child welfare and give voice to the different choices and experiences of male and female children.

This book examines the interrelationship between law, culture, patriarchy and religion in the context of contemporary Bangladesh. It explores the role of Islam in society and politics generally, and its influence on gender equality in particular. The work focuses on the situation of married women. Taking a socio-legal approach, it analyses the changing nature of the dowry practice and its relation to women's increasing paid labour force activity. Despite anti-dowry legislation, it is argued here that the dowry system continues in the form of the appropriation of wives' income. The work calls for legal recognition of this action and the amendment of the Dowry Prohibition Act 1980 as a result of the changing social realities that are taking place in the lives of Bangladeshi women. An Islamic approach is applied to equality between men and women in addressing and analysing these issues. The book includes international comparisons on gender equality and discusses the role of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Descrimination Against Women (CEDAW), as well as the dowry system in South Asia. The book will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of law and religion, gender studies and international development.

This book of essays by legal scholars from the United Kingdom, Eire, Israel and Palestine explores the extent to which the recognition of the concept of children's rights is affected by adherence to religious, cultural and ethnic traditions. The aim is twofold: first, to illuminate the interface between internationally-agreed norms of conduct regarding children and national and cultural determination to preserve traditional approaches; and secondly, to reflect upon the conflicts within societies between different cultural and religious groups in their attempts to determine whether 'liberal/secular' or 'conservative/religious' norms predominate in attitudes to children's upbringing. This is the first collection of papers covering and comparing the UK and Israeli/Palestinian jurisdictions. The particular blends of social, religious and cultural diversity in both regions, mingled with the political factors operating as well, render these jurisdictions of special interest as case-studies in the reception of 'western/liberal' norms and values. Moreover, Israel and Palestine, despite their manifestly different cultures as compared with Britain, have been influenced by the colonial legacy of the common law, rendering this particular east-west comparison of special interest.

This book approaches law as a process embedded in transnational personal, religious, communicative and economic relationships that mediate between international, national and local practices, norms and values. It uses the concept "living law" to describe the multiplicity of norms manifest in transnational moral, social or economic practices that transgress the territorial and legal boundaries of the nation-state. Focusing on transnational legal encounters located in family life, diasporic religious institutions and media events in countries like Norway, Sweden, Britain and Scotland, it demonstrates the multiple challenges that accelerated mobility and increased cultural and normative diversity is posing for Northern European law. For in this part of the world, as elsewhere, national law is challenged by a mixture of expanding human rights obligations and unprecedented cultural and normative pluralism enhanced by expanding global communication and market relations. As a consequence, transnationalization of law appears to create homogeneity, fragmentation and ambiguity, expanding space for some actors while silencing others. Through the lens of a variety of important contemporary subjects, the authors thus engage with the nature of power and how it is accommodated, ignored or resisted by various actors when transnational practices encounter national and local law.

This collection brings together some of the most eminent and exciting authors researching family responsibilities to examine understandings of the day to day responsibilities which people undertake within families and the role of the law in the construction of those understandings. The authors explore a range of questions fundamental to our understanding of 'responsibility' in family life: To whom, and to what ends, are family members responsible? Is responsibility primarily a matter of care? Can we fulfil our family responsibilities by paying those to whom we owe responsibility? Or by paying others to fulfil our caring obligations for us? In each of these circumstances the chapters in this collection explore what it means to have family responsibilities, what constitutes an adequate performance of such responsibilities and the point at which the state intervenes. At the heart of this collection is an interest in the way in which the changing family affects people's perception and exercise their family responsibilities, and how the law attempts to regulate (and understand) those responsibilities. The essays range across intact and separated or fragmented families, from lone and shared parenting in single homes to caring across households (and even across international boundaries) to reflect on the actual caring responsibilities of family members and on the fulfilment of financial responsibilities in families. This collection seeks to advance our understanding of the attempts of the law, and its limits, in regulating the responsibilities which family members take for each other.

This book brings a modern critical approach to bear on the broad range of subjects that used to constitute 'family law.' A key consideration in this collection is the way in which law itself is premised upon, constructing a particular image of the family. By bringing different areas of law together, Probert et al suggest it is possible to explore how differing ideas about 'the family' inform different areas of law. This approach allows Family Life and the Law to analyze the extent to which the law is consistent and/or inconsistent in its concept and treatment of the family across and within disciplines. The book is particularly timely in view of the passage of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, the implications of which reverberate throughout family law and allied disciplines, and the current reconsideration of the position of cohabiting couples.

The approximately two million gay and lesbian elders in the United States are an underserved and understudied population. At a time when gay men and lesbians enjoy an unprecedented degree of social acceptance and legal protection, many elders face the daily challenges of aging isolated from family, detached from the larger gay and lesbian community, and ignored by mainstream aging initiatives. Drawing on materials from law, history, and social theory, this book integrates practical proposals for reform with larger issues of sexuality and identity. Beginning with a summary of existing demographic data and offering a historical overview of pre-Stonewall views of homosexuality, author Nancy J. Knauer goes on to address the invisibility of this community. She examines the multiple double binds central to their identity formation, including ageism among gays and lesbians and homophobia among seniors. Further, the book focuses on specific legal concerns such as estate planning, housing, discrimination, and financial insecurity, and how they impact this community uniquely. Integrating theory with practical questions of policy, and advancing a new understanding of the construction of sexuality and identity, this book advocates meaningful new reforms designed to ensure equity and dignity in aging regardless of sexual orientation.

This volume exposes some of the various issues raised in relation to Muslim communities in Europe by putting the intellectual and legal traditions into dialogue. It brings together a number of scholars of Shari'a and Islamic law with counterparts from the parallel European disciplines of hermeneutics, philosophy and jurisprudence, to explore how the processes of theological-legal thinking have been expressed and are being expressed in a more or less common intellectual framework. It provides a valuable reference for all those interested in exploring how Muslims and non-Muslims view Shari'a law, looking at ways the European legal systems can provide some form of accommodation with Muslim customs.

In the midst of exclamatory headlines, such as "Son Sues to Divorce His Mother," "Surrogate Mother Refuses to Turn Over Baby" and "Facebook Divorces on the Rise," Statsky's FAMILY LAW, 7E helps you find an accurate picture of the state of family law today and your role, as a paralegal, within it. You examine issues truly impacting family law, such as no-fault divorce, the women's movement, and the impact of science and technology on concepts of parentage. Engaging changes, such as new mechanisms for pursuing parents not paying child support and the court's support of unmarried fathers seeking to undo their children's adoptions, keep you reading as you learn. In addition to presenting fundamental principles of family law and current nationwide legal practices, this edition provides state-specific assignments for applying family law in your local area. Legal analysis exercises, real forms, documents and cases further prepare you to work with the actual tools and processes family law professionals use today.

With 1994 designated the United Nations Year of the Family, young children and their relationship with parents and carers is firmly back on the political agenda. Amongst recent legislation to meet this agenda in Britain is the Children Act 1989. The Act seeks to improve the position and perception of children in society, by stressing the rights of children and the responsibilities that parents and the caring professions have towards them. Working Together For Young Children addresses the central issues facing young children and their families in the light of this new social and political climate. The contributors - experienced in the fields of health, education, social and voluntary services - provide information, research evidence and ideas about practice in the light of recent legislative reform. Emphasising the need for continuity, comprehensiveness and collaboration at all levels of care provision, different chapters explore the services directed at children `in need' as well as children in general.