Children's rights : age or understanding?

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to consider the ramifications of replacing the existing age based approach prevalent in most jurisdictions with one of understanding in legal situations relating to minors. I intend to achieve this through a thorough examination of the existing legislation and Conventions as well as all the proposed and potential theories relating to the topic. The thesis will be set out in the ensuing approach: Chapter 1 will provide a brief history on children's rights before going on to define age and the age of majority. It will also define understanding, competency and the relationship between age and maturity. Lastly it will look at some of the more popular theories on children's rights. In chapter 2 I will examine the most important in force and proposed international conventions relating to children and how they are interpreted when it comes to the replacement of age with understanding in legal matters regarding minors. Chapter 3 will examine in detail Maltese legislation in the areas of Criminal, Family, Commercial and Health law, and how they would be affected if an understanding based approach was to replace the existing methodology. Chapter 4 shall take a comparative look at legislation relating to children across a number of key countries, including the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia, Norway, Austria and Scotland. It will examine both the developments and achievements of these countries as well as their failures when it comes to the advancement of children's rights. Finally, chapter 5 contains my conclusions based on the above research, with an overview of the situation as well as an outline of the various advantages and disadvantages of the available models. I also outline a possible solution for a universally acceptable model.