MSU Law Faculty in the News
Let the Kid Be
June 14, 2009
The New York Times Magazine
Not all parenting standards do or should shift with time according to the latest fad or fancy. Lisa Belkin may be right that a trend is currently under way to ease up on highly structured parenting, but no one should lose sight of the fact that some child-rearing norms result from hard-won scientific and moral insights that have been ultimately elevated to the status of legal mandate.
State laws making adults liable for child abuse and neglect are perfect examples of these types of norms; so is international human rights law's prohibition on all forms of violence against children - including parental corporal punishment, according to, among others, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
SUSAN H. BITENSKY
Michigan State University College of Law
East Lansing, Mich.