Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Table of cases
- Table of legislation and documents
- 1 Pluralism and human rights: a legal foundation for the regulation of families and family law in the European Union
- 2 Families, ideologies and value pluralism: towards an expanded concept of family
- 3 Children and European Union law: instrumentalism, protection and empowerment
- 4 Parenthood and European Union law: old ideologies and new ideals
- 5 European Union law and the regulation of intimate relationships: marriage, partnerships and human rights
- 6 The emergence of a European Union family law
- 7 Harmonisation, codification and the future of family law in the European Union
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Children and European Union law: instrumentalism, protection and empowerment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Table of cases
- Table of legislation and documents
- 1 Pluralism and human rights: a legal foundation for the regulation of families and family law in the European Union
- 2 Families, ideologies and value pluralism: towards an expanded concept of family
- 3 Children and European Union law: instrumentalism, protection and empowerment
- 4 Parenthood and European Union law: old ideologies and new ideals
- 5 European Union law and the regulation of intimate relationships: marriage, partnerships and human rights
- 6 The emergence of a European Union family law
- 7 Harmonisation, codification and the future of family law in the European Union
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The European Union has yet to create a fully fledged children's policy. It is, at present, a policy of ‘bits and pieces’ with no cohering theme or approach. Indeed, there has been little reflective thinking about children at all. In this policy vacuum, it is perhaps not surprising that the dominant ideology of the family, and children's roles within ‘the family’, has thoughtlessly shaped Union law and policy. Nonetheless, novel and more progressive ways of thinking about children, and their rights and interests, are beginning to be reflected in Union law. This chapter considers first these newer ways of thinking about children's rights and interests, before going on to examine the Union's laws and policies relating to children. The final section examines how the Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights and a rights-based approach to children's law and policy provide the most appropriate way forward for the Union.
Family ideology and children's rights
The dominant ideology of the family prescribes specific familial roles not just for men and women, but also for children. This is the hierarchical, private family in which the concept of parental autonomy affords parents sole charge over their children. In such a conceptualisation, the Enlightenment view of the child, as ‘becoming’ an adult, rather than simply ‘being’ a child, remains dominant. The paradigmatic child is the dependent child, shielded from the public realm by rightfully protective parents: they are projects for adults to shape.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Families and the European UnionLaw, Politics and Pluralism, pp. 42 - 77Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006