Michael Freeman is Professor of English Law at University College London and is the series editor for Current Legal Issues.

Freeman's own contribution in which he articulates an argument for a 'sociology of children's right';...is forward looking and persuasive...the paper by John Tobin. ..sets out the three models of childhood that have shaped current legal thinking. This is, by far, the most thorough presentation of the three models and the implications for the Courts of adopting the rights based model that I have had the benefit of reading. Another Australian contribution is from Ben Matthews...it is an invaluable source of information for anyone interested in the effectiveness, or otherwise, of mandatory reporting laws.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. A State of Imperfect Transformation: Law, Myth, and the Feminine in Outside Over There, Labyrinth, and Pan's Labyrinth ; 3. Towards a Sociology of Children's Rights ; 4. Why Judges Need to Know and Understand Childhood Studies ; 5. Courts and the Construction of Childhood: A New Way of Thinking ; 6. Childhood, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Research: What Constitutes a 'Rights-Based' Approach? ; 7. Child-Led Organizations and the Advocacy of Adults: Experiences from Bangladesh and Nicaragua ; 8. Transforming Children's Human Rights - From Universal Claims to National Particularity ; 9. Modern African Childhoods: Does Law Matter? ; 10. The Age of Conflict: Rethinking Childhood, Law, and Age through the Israeli-Palestinian Case ; 11. Children's Participation in Court Proceedings when Parents Divorce or Separate: Legal Construction and Lived Experiences ; 12. Children's Consent and 'Assent' to Healthcare Research ; 13. Children and Young People as Moral and Legal Actors: Findings from Studies Conducted in Northern Italy ; 14. Rights-Based Restorative Justice in Canada: From Silence to Citizen ; 15. New Zealand Children and Young People's Perspectives on Relocation Following Parental Separation ; 16. Vulnerability, Children, and the Law ; 17. 'When the Kissing has to Stop': Children, Sexual Behaviour, and the Criminal Law ; 18. Tackling Cyber-Bullying from a Children's Rights Perspective ; 19. Exploring the Contested Role of Mandatory Reporting Laws in the Identification of Severe Child Abuse and Neglect ; 20. Domestic Violence, Contact, and the ECHR ; 21. Reframing the Practice of 'Son Preference' through the Millennium Development Goals ; 22. The Child's Right to Development ; 23. UNCRC's Performance of the Child As Developing ; 24. Minding the Gap? Children with Disabilities and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ; 25. 'Special' Treatment, 'Special' Rights: Children who Hear Voices or Doubly Diminished Initiative ; 26. The Child's Right to Privacy and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights ; 27. Foster Care Partnerships in Finland 1990-2010: From Social Task to Ensuring Better Market Share? ; 28. Parental Discipline, Criminal Laws, and Responsive Regulation ; 29. Litigating the Child's Rights to a Life Free of Violence: Seeking the Prohibition of Parental Physical Punishment of Children Through the Courts ; 30. Discipline and the Ethics of Care ; 31. Caring for Children: Risks and Responsibilities in the Law of Tort