The Child's Right to Legal Standing

How Do North American Courts Treat Children's Legal Standing?

North American courts take an inconsistent approach to the complex issue of the un-emancipated child's right to legal standing in civil matters. Courts and individuals who act as Guardians or Attorneys Ad Litem must try to serve children's independent interests, within the constraints on children's legal standing.

The Child's Right to Legal Standing is the first book to examine the continuum of legal standing granted to children in Canada and the United States under family law. Professor Grover examines 41 key cases on children's right to legal standing as an aspect of personhood. The cases cover a wide range of legal domains and civil proceedings.

Case judgment summaries and analysis through notes, questions, and various alternative court perspectives will help you to:

• Assess the underlying assumptions of varying court judgements
• Build a more informed position to address children's legal standing
• Advocate more effectively for children's human rights
• Assess the extent of Canada's compliance with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child regarding the child's right to be heard in judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child

Challenging Questions

For Child Advocates

• Is the right to legal standing in one's own name a fundamental human right?
• Does the legislated legal incapacity of un-emancipated children in North America - even mature minors - accord with or contravene democratic values?
• What precisely does the child's right to legal standing encompass?
• Why does such disparity exist in North American court judgments regarding children's legal standing?
• Is the legislated legal incapacity of un-emancipated children in North America always in the children's best interest?

For Guardians and Attorneys Ad Litem

• To what extent can a child participate in judicial or administrative proceedings, even via a Guardian Ad Litem, Attorney Ad Litem, or next friend?
• Who can serve as a next friend and why?
• Are there any circumstances when a next friend is not required?
• Can a parent serve as next friend for a child without counsel, as in certain special education cases?
• Are parental interests sometimes incorrectly advanced as indistinguishable from those of the child who has little or no legal standing in the matter?

An Invaluable Casebook For

• Law practitioners working in family law, child protection, refugee and immigration law, constitutional law, human rights, medical law, and education law whose clients include children, parents, and/or guardians
• Lawyers and frontline social workers acting as Attorneys Ad Litem and Guardians Ad Litem, respectively, who need to understand the scope of their role
• Law faculty and students in disciplines dealing with law and society, social justice, constitutional law, human rights, and children's rights
• Sociology faculty and students focusing on the sociology of childhood and the philosophy and sociology of law
• Children's advocates and members of the general public concerned with children's human rights