“Foreword,” to Timothy P. Jackson, ed., The Best Love of the Child: Being Loved and Being Taught to Love as the First Human Right

Abstract

This is my foreword to Timothy Jackson's volume, The Best Love of the Child. The book seeks to offer a complement, if not corrective, to the "best interest of the child" logic that still dominates modern legal and social science discussions of children. The twenty contributors herein argue that talk of children's rights needs to be balanced by talk of children's duties, and that calculations of a child's legal entitlements need to be based on the child's natural needs and stage of development. The premise of their argument is that the most important right of the child is the right to be loved and the right to learn to love others. This insight can be traced to some of the earliest philosophers, theologians, and jurists in the West, and it is being rediscovered anew in the latest social science and humanities literature on healthy child development. This volume makes out that case. 

Keywords: Children's Rights, Children's Duties, Love, Family