A Black Cloud Over The Age of Discretion and The Scope of Parental Responsibility?

Summary

1. INTRODUCTION

Anyone who has read John Eekelaar’s article ‘The Emergence of Children’s Rights’ could not but be impressed by its scholarly breadth and depth. Stimulated by then-recent House of Lords decisions, including Gillick v. West Norfolk and Wisbech AHA, John assessed the status of the concept of children’s rights in English law by way of a historical overview of the emergence of legal recognition of an interest pertaining solely to the child, a theoretical analysis of the interrelation of various broad categories of interests that children might plausibly claim, and an interpretation of the case law. His conclusion on the implications of Gillick was that children would ‘now have, in wider measure than ever before, that most dangerous but most precious of rights: the right to make their own mistakes’.

While I appreciated how this view aligned with some of the statements of general principle in Lord Scarman’s speech in Gillick, and that it was right to highlight their potential implications, I found myself unable to understand how, as a matter of precedent, Gillick could be attributed with such a radical children’s autonomy rights reading. This led to correspondence with John, who graciously tolerated the ‘obsession’ of the young(er) ‘upstart’. His third letter indicated that he had said all he wished to say on the matter! When, shortly thereafter, I cornered John during an interval at the 2003 Society of Legal Scholars Family Law Section meeting in Oxford, he might have been forgiven for thinking he had a stalker, but John very kindly acceded to my request to supervise my research. My time at Pembroke College, as one of John’s last research students (possibly his last) proved highly significant to my career development, for which I shall always be grateful. With John’s assistance, I met many new family law colleagues and friends, not least my fellow student at the time, and now co-editor of this volume, Jens Scherpe.

And so it is, with these embarrassing recollections of my first interactions with John, that I am led to my topic for this chapter.