Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter August 17, 2020

The Trust Model of Children’s Rights

  • Kenneth R. Pike ORCID logo EMAIL logo

Abstract

Is parental control over children best understood in terms of trusteeship or similar fiduciary obligations? This essay contemplates the elements of legal trusts and fiduciarity as they might relate to the moral relationship between children and parents. Though many accounts of upbringing advocate parent-child relationship models with structural resemblance to trust-like relationships, it is unclear who grants moral trusts, how trustees are actually selected, or how to identify proper beneficiaries. By considering these and other classical elements of relationships of trust, this essay seeks to clarify and explore the trust model’s role, if any, in understanding children’s rights. Such exploration raises the possibility that another element of common law, the duty to rescue, may serve to enhance the trust model of children’s rights.


Corresponding author: Kenneth R. Pike, Florida Institute of Technology, 150 West University Blvd, Melbourne, FL, 32901, USA, E-mail:

Acknowledgements

For feedback and encouragement on early versions of this work I am particularly grateful to Peter de Marneffe, Elizabeth Brake, Cheshire Calhoun, The Center for Ethics & Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and several extremely helpful anonymous reviewers.

References

Altman, S. 2018. “Parental Control Rights.” In Philosophical Foundations of Children’s and Family Law, edited by E. Brake and L. Ferguson, 209–26. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198786429.003.0011Search in Google Scholar

Archard, D. 2015. Children: Rights and Childhood, 3rd ed. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315740676Search in Google Scholar

Beck, C. K., G. Glavis, S. A. Glover, M. B. Jenkins, and R. A. Nardi. 1978. “The Rights of Children: A Trust Model.” Fordham Law Review 46(4): 669–780.Search in Google Scholar

Bogert, G. G. and G. T. Bogert. 1973. Handbook of the Law of Trusts, 5th ed. St. Paul: West Publishing Company.Search in Google Scholar

Brighouse, H. and A. Swift. 2014. Family Values: The Ethics of Parent-Child Relationships. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.23943/princeton/9780691126913.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Feinberg, J. 1980. “The Child’s Right to an Open Future.” In Whose Child? Children’s Rights, Parental Authority, and State Power, edited by W. Aiken and H. LaFollette, 124–53. Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield.10.4324/9781315633794-12Search in Google Scholar

Johnston, D. 1988. The Roman Law of Trusts. Oxford: Clarendon Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198252160.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Maitland, F. W. 1911. “The Unincorporate Body.” In The Collected Papers of Frederic William Maitland: Volume Three, edited by H. A. L. Fisher, 271–84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511810435.008Search in Google Scholar

Mariani, J. F., C. W. Kammerer, and N. Guffey-Landers. 2010. “Understanding Fiduciary Duty.” Florida Bar Journal 84(3): 21–34.Search in Google Scholar

McGillivray, A. 2011. “Children’s Rights, Paternal Power and Fiduciary Duty: From Roman Law to the Supreme Court of Canada.” International Journal of Children’s Rights 19: 21–54, https://doi.org/10.1163/157181810X527996.Search in Google Scholar

Picoult, J. 2004. My Sister’s Keeper. Atria Books, New York.Search in Google Scholar

Scott, A. W. 1966. “The Importance of the Trust.” University of Colorado Law Review 39(2): 177–9.10.2307/1598930Search in Google Scholar

Scott, E. S. and R. E. Scott. 1995. “Parents as Fiduciaries.” Virginia Law Review 81: 2401–76, https://doi.org/10.2307/1073583.Search in Google Scholar

Seipp, D. J. 2011. “Trust and Fiduciary Duty in the Early Common Law.” Boston University Law Review 91(3): 1011–37.Search in Google Scholar

Verlinsky, Y., S. Rechitsky, W. Schoolcraft, C. Strom, A. Kuliev. 2001. Preimplantation Diagnosis for Fanconi Anemia Combined with HLA Matching. Journal of the American Medical Association 285(24), 3130–3. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.285.24.3130.Search in Google Scholar

Young-Bruehl, E. 2012. Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children. New Haven: Yale University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2020-08-17
Published in Print: 2020-11-26

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 30.9.2023 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/mopp-2019-0040/html
Scroll to top button