Should children below the age of medical responsibility be allowed to consent to puberty blockers? – England & Wales as a Case Study.”

Need to include 10 reading from here: Week 1 (31 January): Child law and child rights – an introduction Academic reading (required): Anna Holzscheiter, 2010. Chapter 5 (‘Discourses of Childhood – the “Communicative Ecology” of the Child’) in her Children’s Rights in International Politics: The Transformative Power of Discourse (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 99–137. Legal documents (required): 1. CRC, Preamble and Arts. 1, 3, 5, 12, 28, 32, 37(c). 2. 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Arts. 1–2, 7, 17. 3. 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Arts. 1(1), 25. 4. 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art. 6(1). 2 Further (optional) readings: • Allison James, Chris Jenks, and Alan Prout, 1998. Theorizing Childhood (Cambridge: Polity Press). • Rajnaara Akhtar and Conrad Nyamutata, 2020. International Child Law (4th edn., Abingdon and New York: Routledge). • David Archard, 2014. Children: Rights and Childhood (3rd edition, Abingdon and New York: Routledge). • Andrew Bainham and Stephen Gilmore, 2013. Children: The Modern Law (4th edn., Bristol: Family Law). • Daniel Monk, 2009. ‘Childhood and the Law: In Whose ‘Best Interest’?,’ in Kehily edited collection, pp. 177–197. • 2000 EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Arts. 20–21. • 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (entered into in 1999), Preamble and Arts. 2, 4–5, 7, 11–12, 15, 17–18, 21–23, 31. • 2000 EU Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 24. Week 2 (7 February): Is the ‘child’ a legal invention? Academic readings (required): 1. Diana Gittins, 2009. ‘The Historical Construction of Childhood,’ in Kehily edited collection, pp. 35–49. 2. Mary J. Kehily and Heather Montgomery, 2009. ‘Innocence and Experience: A Historical Approach to Childhood and Sexuality,’ in Kehily edited collection, pp. 70–89. 3. Peter Kelly, 2012. ‘The Brain in the Jar: A Critique of Discourses of Adolescent Brain Development’ 15(7) Journal of Youth Studies 944–959. Legal documents (required): 1. CRC, Art. 1. 2. Children Act 1989, Schedule 1, ss 16(1), 67(7)(a), 105(1). Further (optional) readings: • Heather Montgomery, 2008. ‘Chapter 8: Adolescence and Initiation,’ in her An Introduction to Childhood: Anthropological Perspectives on Children’s Lives (Wiley-Blackwell) [pagination varies between print and online editions]. • Erica Burman, 2017. Deconstructing Developmental Psychology (3rd edn., London: Routledge). • Judith Bessant, 2008. ‘Hard Wired for Risk: Neurological Science, ‘the Adolescent Brain’ and Developmental Theory’ 11(3) Journal of Youth Studies 347–360. Week 3 (14 February): Children in armed conflict Academic readings (required): 1. David M. Rosen and Sarah M. Rosen, forthcoming. ‘Child Soldiers and the Right of SelfDefence,’ in Christelle Molima Bameka et al. (eds.), Children and Violence: Agency, Experience and Representation in and Beyond Armed Conflict (Routledge). 3 2. Hedi Viterbo, 2018. ‘Rights as a Divide-and-Rule Mechanism: Lessons from the Case of Palestinians in Israeli Custody’ 43 Law & Social Inquiry 764–795. 3. Hedi Viterbo, 2021. Problematizing Law, Rights, and Childhood in Israel/Palestine (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press), only pp. 207–211 (section 5.5.1 in Chapter 5), 118–123 (section 3.4.2 in Chapter 3) and 291–297 (section 7.3.1 in Chapter 7). Legal document (required): CRC, Art. 38. Further (optional) readings: • Charli Carpenter, 2006. Innocent Women and Children: Gender, Norms and the Protection of Civilians (London: Routledge). • Jo Boyden, 2006. ‘Children under Fire: Challenging Assumptions about Children’s Resilience’ 13(1) Children, Youth and Environments 1–29. • Katrina Lee-Koo, 2011. ‘Horror and Hope: (Re)presenting Militarised Children in Global North–South Relations’ 32(4) Third World Quarterly 725–742. • Jana Tabak, 2020. ‘A Tale of a (Dis)Orderly International Society: Protecting Child-Soldiers, Saving the Child, Governing the Future,’ in J. Marshall Beier (ed.), Discovering Childhood in International Relations (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 115–134. • David M. Rosen, 2007. ‘Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law, and the Globalization of Childhood’ 109(2) American Anthropologist 296–306. • Hedi Viterbo, 2023. ‘Just for Kids: How the Youth Decarceration Discourse Endorses Adult Incarceration’ Criminology & Criminal Justice. • Geneva Convention IV Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949), Arts. 14, 17, 23–24, 38(5), 50, 82, 89, 94, 132, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/INTRO/380. • Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998), Arts. 7(2)(b)(xxvi), 8(2)(b)(xxvi), 26, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/assets/treaties/585-IHL-94-EN.pdf. Week 4 (21 February): Feminist, postcolonial, and other critiques Required readings: 1. Shulamith Firestone, 1970. Chapter 4 (‘Down with Childhood’) in her The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (Bantam), only pp. 76–102. 2. Hedi Viterbo, 2017. ‘Ties of Separation: Analogy and Generational Segregation in North America, Australia, and Israel/Palestine,’ Brooklyn Journal of International Law 42(2): only pp. 687–689, 691–710 and 734–739. Further (optional) reading: • Utsa Mukherjee, 2024. ‘Queer Theory and Childhood Studies,’ in Sarada Balagopalan, John Wall, and Karen Wells (eds.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies (London and New York: Bloomsbury), pp. 96–109. • John Wall, 2019. ‘From Childhood Studies to Childism: Reconstructing the Scholarly and Social Imaginations,’ Children’s Geographies 20(3): 257–270. • Rachel Rosen and Katherine Twamley (eds.), 2018. Feminism and the Politics of Childhood: Friends or Foes? (London: University College London Press). • Manfred Liebel, 2020. Decolonizing Childhoods: From Exclusion to Dignity (Bristol and Chicago: Policy Press). • Gaile S. Cannella and Radhika Viruru, 2004. Childhood and Postcolonization: Power, Education, and Contemporary Practice (New York: Routledge). 4 • Georgiann Davis, Jodie M. Dewey, and Erin L. Murphy, 2016. ‘Giving Sex: Deconstructing Intersex and Trans Medicalization Practices’ 30(3) Gender & Society 490–514. • Marijke Naezer et al., 2021. ‘“We Just Want the Best for This Child”: Contestations of Intersex/DSD and Transgender Healthcare Interventions’ 30:7 Journal of Gender Studies 830–843. • Amy M. Adler, 2001. ‘The Perverse Law of Child Pornography,’ Columbia Law Review 101(2): especially pp. 245–273. • Barry C. Feld, 1999. Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press). Week 5 (28 February): Working children in the Global South Academic readings (required): 1. Olga Nieuwnhuys, 2009. ‘From Child Labour to Working Children’s Movements,’ in Jens Qvortrup et al. (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Childhood Studies (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 289–300. 2. Manfred Liebel, 2012. ‘Do Children Have a Right to Work? Working Children’s Movements in the Struggle for Social Justice,’ in Karl Hanson and Olga Nieuwenhuys (eds.), Reconceptualizing Children’s Rights in International Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 225–49. 3. Heather Montgomery, 2007. ‘Working with Child Prostitutes in Thailand: Problems of Practice and Interpretation’ 14(4) Childhood 415–430. Legal documents (required): 1. CRC, Arts. 28, 31–32. 2. 1996 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), Art. 10(3). 3. 1973 ILO (International Labour Organisation) Convention 138 – Minimum Age Convention, Arts. 1–8. 4. 1999 ILO Convention 182 – Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, Arts. 1, 3. Further (optional) readings: • Matías Cordero Arce, 2012. ‘Towards an Emancipatory Discourse of Children’s Rights’ 20 International Journal of Children’s Rights 365–421. • Helen Charnley and Pearson Nkhoma, 2020. ‘Moving Beyond Contemporary Discourses: Children, Prostitution, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking’ 8(2) Critical and Radical Social Work 205–221. • Viviana A. Zelizer, 1994. Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children (Princeton and Chichester: Princeton University Press). • Lisa H. Makman, 2004. ‘The Right to Work-Free and Playful Childhood: A Historical Perspective,’ in Rhonda L. Clements and Leah Fiorentino (eds.), The Child’s Right to Play: A Global Approach (Westport and London: Paeger), pp. 3–8. • Agustina S. Paglayan, 2024. Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education (Princeton: Princeton University Press). Week 6 (3–7 March): Study week (no classes) 5 Week 7 (14 March): ‘The child’s right to be heard’ Academic readings (required): 1. Aoife Daly, 2018. ‘No Weight for ‘Due Weight’? A Children’s Autonomy Principle in Best Interest Proceedings’ 26 International Journal of Children’s Rights 61-92. 2. Hoko Horii, 2020. ‘Walking a Thin Line: Taking Children’s Decision to Marry Seriously?’ 27(2) Childhood 254–270. Legal document (required): CRC, Art. 12. Further (optional) readings: • Karl Hanson, 2016. ‘Children’s Participation and Agency When They Don’t ‘Do the Right Thing’’ 23(4) Childhood 471–475. • Michael Wyness, 2013. “Global Standards and Deficit Childhoods: The Contested Meaning of Children’s Participation” 11:3 Children’s Geographies 340–353. • Rosemary Hunter, 2007. ‘Close Encounters of a Judicial Kind: “Hearing” Children’s “Voices” in Family Law Proceedings’ 19(3) Child and Family Law Quarterly 283–303. • Patricia Alderson et al., 2005. “The Participation Rights of Premature Babies” 13 International Journal of Children’s Rights 31–50. • 1993 Hague Adoption Convention, Art. 4, www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/fulltext/?cid=69. Week 8 (21 March): Children’s Right to Vote Academic readings (required): 1. Nicholas J. Munn, 2012. ‘Capacity Testing the Youth: A Proposal for Broader Enfranchisement,’ Journal of Youth Studies 15(8): 1048–1062. 2. John Wall, 2014. ‘Why Children and Youth Should Have the Right to Vote: An Argument for Proxy-Claim Suffrage,’ Children, Youth and Environments 24(1): 108–123. 3. Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos, forthcoming. ‘Give Young Adults the Vote,’ Notre Dame Law Review, only pp. 6–15. Legal documents (required): 1. 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. 17(1). 2. CRC, Arts. 12–15. Further (optional) reading: • Jan Eichhorn and Johannes Bergh (eds.), 2020. Lowering the Voting Age to 16: Learning from Real Experiences Worldwide (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan). • Júlia Peña Guardia, 2022. ‘Children in Power: Are Children Entitled to the Right to Stand for Public Office?’ Contemporary Voices 1(1): 49–82. • Francis Schrag, 1975. ‘The Child’s Status in the Democratic State,’ Political Theory 3(4): 441. 6 Week 9 (28 March): Guest lecture by Yijia Liu on international child abduction Academic readings (required): 1. Peter McEleavy, 2021. ‘Child Abduction,’ in Rudolf Bernhardt (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopaedias of International Law (Oxford Public International Law), only paragraphs 1– 3, 9–14. 2. Michelle Fernando, 2022. ‘Children’s Objections in Hague Child Abduction Convention Proceedings in Australia and the “Strength of Feeling” Requirement’ 30(3) International Journal of Children’s Rights 729–754. 3. Yijia Liu, forthcoming. ‘The Best Interests of the State: How Racialized Fear Steered the Hague Child Abduction Convention Away from Children’s Interests.’ Legal document (required): 1980 Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, Arts. 1–4, 13, www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/full-text/?cid=24. Further (optional) readings: • Peter McEleavy, 2015. ‘The European Court of Human Rights and the Hague Child Abduction Convention: Prioritising Return or Reflection?’ 62(3) Netherlands International Law Review 365–405. • Brenda Hale, 2017. ‘Taking Flight—Domestic Violence and Child Abduction’ 70(1) Current Legal Problems 3–16. • Michael Salter, 2014. “Getting Hagued: The Impact of International Law on Child Abduction by Protective Mothers” 39 Alternative Law Journal 19-23. • Linda D. Elrod, 2010. ‘Please Let Me Stay: Hearing the Voice of the Child in Hague Abduction Cases Symposium: Divorcing the Multi-National Family’ 63(4) Oklahoma Law Review, only pages 674–690. • Gina Masterton et al., 2022. ‘Dislocated Lives: The Experience of Women Survivors of Family and Domestic Violence after Being “Hagued”’ 44(3) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 369–90. • Sawako Yamaguchi and Taryn Lindhorst, 2016. ‘Domestic Violence and the Implementation of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: Japan and U.S. Policy’ 17(4) Journal of International Women’s Studies 16–30. • Carol Smart, 1989. Feminism and the Power of Law (London and New York: Routledge), pp. 153–159. • Robert H. Mnookin, 1975. ‘Child-Custody Adjudication: Judicial Functions in the Face of Indeterminacy’ 39(3) Law and Contemporary Problems 227–293. • Paul Reid Beaumont and Peter Eugene McEleavy, 1999. The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press). • Taryn Lindhorst and Jeffrey Edleson, 2012. Battered Women, Their Children, and International Law: The Unintended Consequences of the Hague Child Abduction Convention (Boston: Northeastern University Press). • Rhona Schuz, 2013. The Hague Child Abduction Convention: A Critical Analysis (London: Hart Publishing). 7 Week 10 (4 April): Regulating Parenthood Academic readings (required): 1. Hugh Lafollette, 1980. ‘Licensing Parents,’ Philosophy & Public Affairs 9(2): pp. 182–197. 2. David Pimentel, 2016. ‘Protecting the Free-Range Kid: Recalibrating Parents’ Rights and the Best Interest of the Child,’ Cardozo Law Review 38(1): only pp. 1–28. 3. Helen Coffey, 2024. ‘The Truth about Why We Stopped Having Babies,’ The Independent, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/babies-birth-rate-decline-fertility-b2605579.html. Legal document (required): CRC, Arts. 3(2), 5, 9, 19. Further (optional) reading: • Linda Gordon, 2008. ‘The Perils of Innocence, Or What’s Wrong with Putting Children First,’ Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 1(3): 331–50. • Samantha M. Davey, 2020. A Failure of Proportion: Non-Consensual Adoption in England and Wales (Oxford and New York: Hart). • Jan Macvarish, 2016. Neuroparenting: The Expert Invasion of Family Life (London: Palgrave Macmillan). • Gabriel Scheidecker et al., 2023. ‘“Poor Brain Development” in the Global South? Challenging the Science of Early Childhood Interventions,’ Ethos 51(1): 3–26. • 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Arts. 10(1), 13(3). • 1963 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages. • 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption. • 2008 European Convention on the Adoption of Children (Revised). Week 11 (11 April): Child refugees Academic readings (required): 1. Hedi Viterbo and Yulia Ioffe, 2024. ‘No Refuge from Childhood: How Child Protection Harms Refugees’ 35(3) European Journal of International Law 647–677. 2. Aurora T. Sørsveen and Marit Ursin, 2021. ‘Constructions of ‘the Ageless’ Asylum Seekers: An Analysis of How Age is Understood among Professionals Working within the Norwegian Immigration Authorities’ 35(2) Children & Society 198–212. Legal document (required): CRC, Art. 22. Further (optional) readings: • Jason M. Pobjoy, 2017. The Child in International Refugee Law (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press). • Ala Sirriyeh, 2018. The Politics of Compassion: Immigration and Asylum Policy (Bristol: Bristol University Press), only the chapter ‘The Intolerable Death of Alan Kurdi.’ 8 • Ada Engebrigtsen, 2003. ‘The Child’s (or the State’s) Best Interests? An Examination of the Ways Immigration Officials Work with Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors in Norway’ 8(3) Child and Family Social Work 191–200. • Lauren Heidbrink, 2021. ‘Anatomy of a Crisis: Governing Youth Mobility through Vulnerability’ 47(5) Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 988–1005. • Carly McLaughlin, 2018. ‘‘They Don’t Look Like Children’: Child Asylum-Seekers, the Dubs Amendment and the Politics of Childhood’ 44(11) Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 1757–1773. • Lesley Pruitt, Helen Berents, and Gayle Munro, 2018. ‘Gender and Age in the Construction of Male Youth in the European Migration “Crisis”’ 43(3) Signs 687–709. • UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951), www.unhcr.org/uk/3b66c2aa10. • African Charter, Art. 23. also : Essay • Your research question should focus on a legal/policy issue concerning childhood or children. You will have the opportunity to discuss your proposed research question with the teacher in advance. • Your sources should include at least 20 academic publications, including at least 10 of the module readings (required and/or optional). Academic journal articles, books, and book chapters all qualify as academic publications, whereas media reports, human reports, and legal sources (e.g., statutes, treaties, judgments) do not. Different chapters from the same book only count as different publications if they were written by different authors (and not by the same author, in which case they count as a single publication). 2 • Your essay will be assessed based on the LLB marking criteria, including in particular: (a) Engagement with the relevant module readings, especially academic readings. (b) Independent research, including adequate engagement with additional academic sources. (c) Good knowledge and understanding of the essay question. (d) Critical thinking. (e) Clarity, coherence, structure, and presentation. • Further guidance will be provided in class.