The Law and Child Development

Emily Buss, Professor, School of Law, University of Chicago, USA and Mavis Maclean, Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford, UK.

Contents: Introduction; Part I Overarching Issues: The legal construction of adolescence, Elizabeth S. Scott; Allocating developmental control among parent, child and the state, Emily Buss; The interests of the child and child's wishes: the role of dynamic self-determinism, John Eekelaar; The paramountcy principle: consensus or construct? Helen Reece. Part II Private Law Issues: Separation and Contact: What matters? What does not? Five perspectives on the association between marital transitions and children's adjustment, E. Mavis Hetherington, Margaret Bridges and Glendessa M. Insabella; A critical assessment of child custody evaluations, limited science and a flawed system, Robert E. Emery, Randy K. Otto and William T. O’Donohue; The uses of social science data in legal policymaking: custody determinations at divorce, Martha L. Fineman and Anne Opie; Why can't they agree? The underlying complexity of contact and residence disputes, Carol Smart and Vanessa May; Parent-child contact in Australia: exploring five different post-separation patterns of parenting, Bruce Smyth; Child-custody adjudication: judicial functions in the face of indeterminacy, Robert H. Mnookin. Part III Public Law Issues: Child, Family and the State: 'Are you my mother?' Conceptualizing children's identity rights in transracial adoptions, Barbara Bennett Woodhouse; Re O and N; Re B - Uncertain evidence and risk taking in child protection cases, Mary Hayes; Lessons from America? Learning from child protection policy in the USA, Caroline Keenan; Taking Gault seriously: toward a new juvenile court, Gary B. Melton; Legal socialization of children and adolescents, Jeffrey Fagan and Tom R. Tyler; Name Index.