Child Law in Ireland provides a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the Irish child law system. It incorporates an examination of Ireland's international obligations in this area arising under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as an examination of the Irish Constitution and the domestic legislative framework. The book addresses a wide range of child law topics, including: children's rights; parentage; donor-assisted human reproduction and surrogacy; guardianship, custody and access; child protection; representation and participation; and education. Child Law in Ireland includes a discussion of timely legal developments, such as: the Assisted Reproduction Bill 2017; the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015; the Adoption (Amendment) Act 2017; the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016; the Children First Act 2015; and the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016, among others.

This new edition of a completely unique title outlines current law, policy and practice as it relates to children in all areas of their lives. Written in a clear analytical style, it maps the legal landscape and highlights the key provisions and principles you need to navigate when handling cases involving children and families. No other book examines law and policy affecting children in such a comprehensive and detailed manner. It tackles a broad range of issues concerning children beyond traditional family law, including constitutional issues, and will keep your firm in step with current thinking and the latest legal practice nationally and internationally. It is thoroughly updated since the last edition which issued in 2008. Updated to the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2011 and deals with the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012 and the proposed Child First Bill.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires States Parties to take all appropriate measures to implement the rights in the Convention. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Convention?s adoption, focus has shifted onto the measures being taken at national level to give effect to children?s rights with specific reference to legal incorporation both direct and indirect. The way in which the CRC is given legal effect is highly contingent upon the constitutional and legal systems of individual countries and can best be understood by those writing from the specific national context. So this book combines individual contributions that address the experience of legal incorporation in selected countries by their national experts, with comparative analysis of the international landscape from the world?s leading authorities on legal implementation of the CRC. The jurisdictions covered in this book include Australia, Scotland, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Iceland, Wales, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, USA, Mexico and China.

This book examines how child protection law has been shaped by the transition to late modernity and how it copes with the ever-changing concept of risk. The book traces the evolution of the contemporary child protection system through historical changes, assessing the factors that have influenced the development of legal responses to abuse over a 130-year period. It does so by focussing on the Republic of Ireland where child protection has become emblematic of wider social change. The work draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources including legislation, case law and official and media reports of child protection inquiries. It also utilises insights developed through an extensive examination of parliamentary debates on child protection matters. These materials are assessed through the lens of critical discourse analysis to explore the relationship between law, social policy and social theory as they effect child protection. While the book utilises primarily Irish sources, this multidisciplinary approach ensures the argument has international applicability. The book will be a valuable resource for all those with an interest in the development of child protection law.

This updated edition consolidates all child-centred legislation, from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child through to the Referendum on Children's Rights 2012, in an easy-to-understand format.

Child Law is an exceptional work... it stands out as an impressive and much-needed reference on the law as it relates to one of our nation's most valued resources The Hon. Mr Justice John L Murray, Chief Justice of Ireland, Four Courts, in the foreword to the new edition. Child Law - 2nd Edition is a fully comprehensive narrative text of 1,400 pages. Now part of the Brehon Library the new edition provides a detailed text with full analysis and commentary, offering an assessment of the law together with suggested approaches to its practice. This seminal text covers both civil and criminal aspects of child law and gives you a clear and incisive examination of the entire Irish child law system. Child Law - 2nd Edition has been fully revised to reflect all legislative changes since the first edition. The new edition of Child Law will include all recent national and international court decisions. It also includes a commentary on all statutes and statutory instruments in the child law area that have come into force since the last edition. CHILD LAW - 2nd EDITION CONTAINS NEW MATERIAL INCLUDING: 1. Migrant children, child refugees and asylum seekers, separated children and trafficked children - Considers the Immigration Residence, and Protection Bill 2008 and the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008. 2. Maintenance - Considers the myriad of issues in relation to maintenance and children, including new rules on the recognition of foreign maintenance orders. 3. Children and the Criminal Justice System - Reviews the child as an offender. 4. Child Sexual Abuse - Deals with the child as a victim, including child abuse, sexual abuse of children, grooming, child pornography, vetting, and the Sex Offenders Register. 5. Medical Law - Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the various family law issues are dealt with. 6. New Approaches to Children's Interests - Reviews the challenges in securing the best interest of children and young people in the context of the changing nature of family life in Ireland. It considers a range of issues that the legislature and courts will have to grapple with over the next few decades. These issues are explored in light of Ireland's obligations under international law and in particular the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The Civil Partnership Bill 2009 is also examined. COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE * Considers the impact of the proliferation of increasingly complex international instruments on domestic child law. * Deals with education and undertakes an examination of the right to education under the Constitution and the Education Acts. * Comprehensive coverage of alternative care in the context of the role of the Health Service Executive under the Child Care Act, 1991 as amended by the Child Care (Amendment) Act, 2009, including the role of the HSE in childcare and protection, the placement of children outside the State, children with medical or psychiatric needs, child pornography, vetting and childcare services. * Deals with the involvement of children in the legal process. It considers hearing the voice of the child, the separate representation of children and the role of the Ombudsman for Children. * Examines in detail for the Adoption Act 2009. * Considers international initiatives designed to combat child abuse as well as specific Irish issues regarding child abuse. * Examines the position of migrant children, child refugees, child trafficiking, and asylum seekers. * Deals with the emerging areas of medical treatment of minors and a range of issues that the legislature and courts will have to address over the next few decades. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Geoffrey Shannon is Ireland's leading expert on the law relating to children. Since the first edition of this seminal work, Geoffrey Shannon has been appointed by the Government as Chairman of the Adoption Board and a Special Rapporteur on Child Protection. He has also been appointed by the Irish Economic and Social Research Institute as the Child Law expert to the longitudinal study of children, which is the most ambitious project of its kind ever to have been commissioned in Ireland. He is editor of the Irish Journal of Family Law and has published extensively in the areas of Family and Child Law. In March 2010, Geoffrey Shannon was appointed as a member of an expert review panel to examine the deaths of children in care of the State.

Child Welfare Removals by the State addresses a most important (but little-researched) legal proceeding: when the State intervenes in the private family sphere to remove children at risk to a place of safety, adoption, or in other forms of out-of-home care. It is an intervention into the private family sphere that is intrusive, contested, and a last resort. States' interventions in the family are decided within legal and political orders and traditions that constitute a country's policies, welfare state model, child protection system, and children s position in a society. However, we lack a cross-country analysis of the different models of decision-making in a European context. This text aims to present new research at the intersection of social work, law, and social policy concerning child protection proceedings for children in need of alternative care. It explores the role of court-based and voluntary decision-making systems in child protection proceedings, its effects, dynamics, and meanings in seven European countries and the United States, and analyses the tensions and dilemmas between children, parents, and socio-legal professionals. The book consists of eight country chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion chapters. The range of countries of countries represented in the book covers the social democratic Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, and Sweden), the conservative corporatist regimes (Germany and Switzerland), the neo-liberal (England, Ireland, and the United States), and related child welfare systems.

The book 2013 marks the 60th anniversary of Ireland's ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights and the 10th anniversary of the Convention's incorporation into domestic law, by means of the ECHR Act 2003. It contains a wealth of essays and articles by leading experts which examine Ireland's engagement with the European Convention on Human Rights at international level down through the years as well as the extent to which the case law of the European Court of Human Rights has influenced domestic human rights law and administrative action through the vehicle of the 2003 Act. It analyses current Strasbourg jurisprudence on key issues and project its likely implications on law and policy in the Contracting States, with particular reference to Irish domestic law. The book addresses the difficult questions that arise for judges in both jurisdictions following the constitutionalisation of the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights in 2009 and the revised agreement of the EU's accession to the ECHR. The impact of the ECHR in Irish law is a particularly rich subject for analysis, given the strong tradition of rights review by the Irish judiciary in interpreting the fundamental rights guarantees in the Irish Constitution. While the Irish statute is superficially similar to the Human Rights Act in the United Kingdom, the context in which it operates is radically different, given the pre-eminent role of the Irish Constitution in shaping domestic human rights law. As well as outlining the specific domestic context in which the ECHR operates in Ireland, the book also includes comparative insights from the United Kingdom context as to the impact of the Human Rights Act to date in that jurisdiction. Additional themes of the book include the development of ECHR jurisprudence and its effects in the domestic setting on asylum, immigration, criminal justice, children, mental health patients, gender recognition and the limits and potential of the ECHR as regards combating poverty.