This volume brings together some of the best journal articles of the last twenty years which deal with various aspects of the relationship between parents and children. Adopting an inter-disciplinary and comparative approach, the book reproduces articles from a range of journals in law and the social sciences. The book is divided into eight parts dealing, respectively, with becoming a parent; the status and obligations of parenthood; issues of upbringing; adolescence; child support; parental separation, divorce and children; child abuse and state intervention; social parenthood and adoption. The volume includes a substantial introduction by the editor

Contents: Introduction; Part I Becoming a Parent: The position of the father in European legislation, Marie-Thérèse Meulders-Klein; The French 'tradition' of anonymous birth: the lines of argument, Nadine Lefaucheur; Families, assisted reproduction and the law, Rebecca Probert; Do parents influence the sexual orientation of their children? Findings from a longitudinal study of lesbian families, Susan Golombok and Fiona Tasker. Part II The Status and Obligations of Parenthood: Are parents morally obliged to care for their own children?, John Eekelaar; Conceptions of parental autonomy, Colin M. Macleod; The myth of parental rights, Phillip Montague. Part III Issues of Upbringing: Whose life is it anyway?, Michael Freeman; Religion, culture and conviction - the medical treatment of young children, Caroline Bridge; Punishing parents for the crimes of their children, Raymond Arthur; Am I my child's keeper? Parental liability in negligence, Stanley Yeo; Family values in the classroom? Reconciling parental wishes and children's rights in state schools, Laura Lundy. Part IV Adolescence: Rearing adolescents in contemporary society, Stephen A. Small and Gay Eastman; The parenting of adolescents in Britain today, John C. Coleman; Rethinking Gillick, Michael Freeman. Part V Child Support: Unwilling fathers and abortion: terminating men's child support obligations, Sally Sheldon; A theory of child support, Scott Altman. Part VI Parental Separation, Divorce and Children: Parental predivorce relations and offspring postdivorce well-being, Alan Booth and Paul R. Amato; Inter-parental conflict and children's adaptation to separation and divorce: theory, research and implications for family law, practice and policy, Gordon T. Harold and Mervyn Murch; Child custody in the age of children's rights: the search for a just and workable standard, Barbara Bennett Woodhouse; Parent-child contact in Australia: exploring 5 different post-separation patterns of parenting, Bruce Smyth. Part