Prelude; Part I. 1. Are children human?; 2. Interlude – taking a deep breath; Part II. Even Lawyers Were Children Once: 3. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and its principles; 4. The Convention – norms and themes; 5. Enforcing children's rights; 6. Criticisms of the Convention; 7. Beyond the Convention; 8. Interlude – what we can learn from the sociology of childhood; 9. Childhoods and rights; 10. Regional children's rights; 11. Child friendly justice; 12. The world 25 years on: new issues and responses; Part III. A Magna Carta for Children: 13. Rethinking children's rights; 14. Alternatives to rights – or are they?; 15. A Magna Carta for children?; 16. Rethinking principles and concepts; 17. Conclusion; 18. Coda – a child of our time.

'In this book, which is based on his 2015 Hamlyn Lectures, Michael Freeman embarks on an account of children's rights which is astonishing in its breadth and depth. No aspect is neglected, from the historical origins of the idea to the most contemporary issues in which children's rights are implicated. These are many, including globalisation, social inequality, migration, even climate change. The coverage is also global, with special attention given to South America and Africa. Freeman draws not only on law and legal theory, but also on other disciplines, such as sociology and neuroscience. But references to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are interwoven throughout the text. Ultimately, however, it is an uncompromisingly political statement about children and the realities of the political and social world in which they live, and what still needs to be done to treat them properly.' John Eekelar, University of Oxford