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Current research projects in
the Department of Children’s Rights and Health
Is the best
interests of the child a gender neutered principle?
On adjudication of parental responsibility in Swedish courts
This study concerns one of the most controversial issues of children’s law, namely whether courts pay undue attention to notions of gender when deciding disputes over custody, residence and access. Do courts make different demands on mothers and fathers when assessing their capacity for catering to the child’s best interests? Is judgement affected by whether the dispute involves daughters or sons? Given, not least, the reasonable assumption that the principle of gender equality and the principle of the best interests of the child will continue to dominate the Swedish discourse on law and the family, it is of the utmost importance for legislation and judicial practice that the interplay between these principles should be made clear. Clarifications of this kind will also have an important bearing on extra-judicial solutions concerning custody, residence and access which the majority of parental couples negotiate in connection with a separation.
Contact Person:
Professor Johanna Schiratzki
johanna.schiratzki@juridicum.su.se
This jurisprudential thesis with a multi-disciplinary in-put discusses the social services’ responsibility for child victims of crime, and examines the legal prerequisites for the social services child protection work. The study assumes a pro-active child perspective; it is the legal prerequisites to protect children from future crimes that are in focus. Important legal questions that are actualised are how the conflict of interest between the parent’s rights as a carer and the social services utmost responsibility is to be interpreted and solved, how the principle of the best interest of the child affects the social services tools and mandate and the secrecy rules influencing the child protection work. The thesis also contains empirical studies with the aim of examining how social services use the legal tools and how the task to protect children is interpreted and understood by social workers.
Contact person:
Pernilla Leviner
pernilla.leviner@juridicum.su.se
