International Handbook on Child Participation in Family Law

This topical and timely book considers children's participation rights in the context of family law proceedings, and how their operation can be improved for the benefit of children and family justice systems globally. In doing so, it provides the pedagogical reasoning for child participation, as well as a thorough analysis of the relevant human rights instruments in this area, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This comprehensive book examines the way in which private international law instruments deal with child participation in separation/divorce, parental responsibility and child abduction proceedings. In addition, the book includes individual contributions from renowned family law experts from 17 countries who describe and analyse the local laws and exercise of child participation rights in their own jurisdictions. These insightful texts include the authors' views on the improvements needed to ensure that child participation rights are fully respected and implemented in the countries under review. A detailed comparative analysis follows which helpfully pinpoints both the key commonalities and differences in these global processes. Finally, the concluding chapter draws together the different perspectives revealed across the handbook, and identifies several key issues requiring further reflection from scholars, policy makers and family justice professionals. The International Handbook on Child Participation in Family Law is a rich source of information and essential reading for all those working in this important and evolving field.

Wendy Schrama is Professor of Family Law and Comparative Law and Director of the Utrecht Centre for European Research into Family Law (UCERF) at Utrecht University. She serves as an editor of several family law journals and commentaries, and has published extensively on family law issues. She also is a part-time family law judge at a Dutch district court and has previously worked at the Dutch Ministry of Justice.Marilyn Freeman is co-Director of the International Centre for Family Law, Policy and Practice (ICFLPP) and Principal Research Fellow at Westminster Law School, University of Westminster, London, England, UK. Nicola Taylor is Professor at the Faculty of Law and Director of the Children' s Issues Centre, University of Otago, New Zealand; Holder of the Alexander McMillan Leading Thinker Chair in Childhood Studies. MARIELLE BRUNING is Full Professor of Child Law at Leiden Law School, the Netherlands and is the founder of the Leiden Child Law Department at Leiden University. She is the Program Director of the Dutch LLM in Child Law and teaches child protection in the LLM Advanced Studies in International Children's Rights program. Her research focuses on youth care, child protection, children in alternative care, violence against children, child participation in legal proceedings and children's rights. She is also an honorary deputy (juvenile) judge at the Amsterdam District Court.