This edited collection critiques, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the growing body of EU children’s rights activities in the light of broader political, economic and legal processes. Specifically, it interrogates whether EU intervention effectively responds to what are perceived as violations of children’s rights and the extent to which EU efforts to uphold children’s rights complement and reinforce parallel national and international pursuits. Moreover, it scrutinises the compatibility of EU children’s rights measures with the principles and provisions enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The child asylum seeker poses unique challenges for reception and refugee status determination systems, not least because the child is entitled to have his or her rights as a child respected as a matter of international and regional human rights law. In the last decade the European Union has increasingly engaged with children’s rights, with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009, and a new Article 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union that commits the Union to promoting the ‘protection of the rights of the child.’ This book addresses the question of whether the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) complies with the rights of the child. It contrasts the normative standards of international child rights law with the treatment of child asylum seekers and refugees in the CEAS. Ciara Smyth identifies the attributes of the rights of the child that are most relevant to the asylum context and systematically examines whether and to what extent those attributes are reflected in the CEAS legislation. The book goes on to assess whether the CEAS instruments direct Member States to comply with the rights of the child, offering a comprehensive examination of the place of the child within European asylum law and policy. The book will be of great use and interest to scholars and students of international law, immigration and children’s rights studies.

Due to the demand for flexible working hours and employees who are available around the clock, the time patterns of childcare and schooling have increasingly become a political issue. Comparing the development of different “time policies” of half-day and all-day provisions in a variety of Eastern and Western European countries since the end of World War II, this innovative volume brings together internationally known experts from the fields of comparative education, history, and the social and political sciences, and makes a significant contribution to this new interdisciplinary field of comparative study.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights as it relates to children. It includes detailed analysis of the Court's key decisions on children's rights, highlighting its achievements as well as offering informed critique of its ongoing weaknesses.

This book explains the differences between European countries in the supply and forms of public child care and preschool provisions by reference to the historical context in which these forms originated and to the institutional constraints underlying their development.

The European Convention on Human Rights is the most successful system for the enforcement of human rights in the world. However, to date its full potential for protecting children’s rights has not been explored as attention has focused on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This unique book provides the first analysis of the extensive case law of the Commission and the Court of Human Rights on all issues concerning children and their rights. This study is important as a study of the regional protection of children’s rights and, moreover, the case law itself can be directly applied in the legal system of nearly every European country, including the UK. The book includes chapters on the rights of the child under the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to education, protection from abuse, the right to identity, child care, juvenile justice, health care and immigration and the family. It also explores the potential of the Strasbourg mechanism for the protection of children’s rights and thus provides a practical and vital guide to the study and use of the European Convention in the broad area of children’s rights.