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Crowe & Toohey on "Best Interests of the Child"

By Lawrence Solum

Jonathan Crowe and Lisa C. Toohey (The University of Queensland - T.C. Beirne School of Law and The University of Queensland - T.C. Beirne School of Law) have posted From Good Intentions to Ethical Outcomes: The Paramountcy of Children's Interests in the Family Law Act (Melbourne University Law Review, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 391-414, 2009) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

The notion of the 'best interests of the child' plays a central role in Australian family law. Section 60CA of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), as amended in 2006, reiterates the longstanding principle that, in making a parenting order, 'a court must regard the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration.' The Australian judiciary has adopted a strong interpretation of the paramountcy principle, according to which the interests of children prevail absolutely over the interests of all other parties. The authors argue that such a strong emphasis on children?s interests cannot be ethically justified; only a weak view of the paramountcy principle can be supported on ethical grounds.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on February 19, 2010 (boomark / email).