"Children: Rights and Childhood" is widely regarded as the first book to offer a detailed philosophical examination of children's rights. Drawing on a wide variety of sources from law and literature to politics and psychology, David Archard provides a clear and accessible introduction to a topic that has assumed increasing relevance since the book's first publication. Divided clearly into three parts, it covers key topics such as: John Locke's writings on children; Philippe Aries's "Centuries of Childhood"; key texts on children's liberation and rights; a child's right to vote and to sexual choice; the rights of parents and the state over children, and defining and understanding child abuse.
The second edition has been fully revised and updated including a new preface, a new chapter on children's moral and legal rights, taking into account "The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child" and a new chapter on children under the law, taking changes to European law into account.