A Classical Liberal Argument against Parental Rights

Sætra, H. S., A classical liberal argument against parental rights. Barataria, Forthcoming

18 Pages Posted: 30 Dec 2022

Date Written: December 21, 2022

Abstract

That the freedom of one individual entails the unfreedom of another is a fundamental challenge for liberalism, and this article examines how children pose a problem for certain varieties of liberalism. It begins by showing that the term liberalism is used in very different ways in the literature on parental rights. Then an analysis of a strand of liberalism referred to as classical political liberalism, based on John Locke and John Stuart Mill, is performed. A classical liberal framework is then proposed, where the government does not have comprehensive positive duties to ensure that children achieve certain outcomes, but in which it does have a clear duty to create and secure a negative space for each child. It is also argued that liberal theory is based on a comprehensive conception of the good, and that in order to know what sort of negative space is required, this must be acknowledged.

Keywords: liberalism, parental rights, children’s rights, the good, paternalism

JEL Classification: 100

Suggested Citation

Sætra, Henrik Skaug, A Classical Liberal Argument against Parental Rights (December 21, 2022). Sætra, H. S., A classical liberal argument against parental rights. Barataria, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4308627 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4308627

Henrik Skaug Sætra (Contact Author)

Østfold University College ( email )

Remmen
HALDEN, 1757
Norway

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