About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

23 Int'l J. Child. Rts. 869 (2015)
Nevena Vuckovic-Sahovic, Jaap E Doek, and Jean Zermatten, the Rights of the Child in International Law

handle is hein.journals/intjchrb23 and id is 885 raw text is: TH ['rmwro' INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS BRILL 23 (2015) 869-870 L__,____ N IJ HOFF brillcom/chil Book Review 0 NevenaVu6kovi6-9ahovi6,Jaap E Dock, and Jean Zermatten The Rights of the Child in International Law, Berne, Stampfli Publishers, 2012, ISBN 978-3-7272-8849-1. CHF135.0O. There are surprisingly very few legal textbooks on children's rights. I there- fore approached this book with some excitement. It is written by three expe- rienced and knowledgeable scholars, with international reputations. It is expensive, thus probably ruling out a student market. A pity, but they will have access to it in libraries, hopefully. It is comprehensive. It is thorough. True, the English in which it is written is poor: the authors can be forgiven for this, though not the Swiss publishers, who surely employ a copy editor with a command of English. However, I doubt if this book was copy-edited. It is doctrinal, very legalistic. There is not much by way of context. If all you read was this you would think that only lawyers had devoted any thought to chil- dren's rights, that, for example, there was no childhood studies ferment. And as for history - in a children's rights balloon debate who would you throw out first? Korczak or Justinian? With respect, only Continental lawyers would save Justinian, Gaius, Ulpian, even Tony Thomas before Korczak! And I taught Roman Law before children's rights! Korcczak is not even mentioned in the book. The book is knee deep in typos. Thus we get Hobbs and Lock, Veeerman and Verhelen. One failing of this book is that because it is about the international law of children, where there is no law the problem is not discussed. Thus, gaps, marginalisations etc. are left as found. Inevitably, some parts of the book are stronger than others. Particularly weak is the dis- cussion of the best interests of the child (sometimes called the best inter- est of the child, once the 'bests' interests). The direct/indirect distinction is not brought out. There is no discussion of the best interests principle in relation to culture. There is no real attempt to understand the relationship between Articles 3 and 2. The English Children Act 1989 turns up inexplica- bly at this point, but it is a garbled version and the attributed date is wrong (1984 for 1989). @ KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2015 1 D01 10.1163/15718182-02304006

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most