Children’s Right to Identity, Selfhood and International Family Law

This pioneering book explores the child’s right to identity, and the concept of selfhood, in both domestic and cross-border contexts. It highlights life events and transformations that children and young people often experience in the field of international family law and related areas which may impact on their identity, and considers the legal protections available to them. The book analyses the psychological and sociocultural factors that contribute to identity formation and discusses how this can sometimes be damaged or disrupted by significant life experiences and adversities. How the law can be used to best protect children at risk of interrupted or maladjusted identity development is also addressed.

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book begins with contributions examining the formation of childhood identity, analysing psychological and cultural perspectives on development. These provide insight into how the child’s right to preservation of their identity is currently interpreted and applied under Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and how this is interpreted and applied in international and domestic legal settings. The book highlights the likely consequences of conflict, discrimination and oppression on children and young people, revealing how the associated events and transitions, as well as those emanating from more positive foundations, often influence the evolution and integration of their identities over time. To conclude, the book suggests a range of improvements to help ensure that children’s right to identity is more frequently taken into account in the international family justice field, ultimately improving the decisions being made about vulnerable children and young people.

Children’s Right to Identity, Selfhood and International Family Law is designed for students, academics, and all professionals and practitioners in family and human rights law. Its focus on practical methodologies makes it an essential read for lawyers, judges, mediators, social workers, counsellors, NGOs and child/family support organisations. It will also be of keen interest to families where children and young people have experienced, or are experiencing, identity-impacting changes to their lives.