ABSTRACT
Using England as an example, this chapter examines the utility and futility of international standards in affecting change in domestic youth justice systems and in providing legally enforceable remedies. It focuses on two legal regimes: the United Nations (UN) and the Council of Europe. The most comprehensive source of international standards for children, both generally and for those in conflict with the law, is the UN and in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC’s enforcement mechanisms have been strengthened by the adoption in 2012 of OP3. The child-friendly justice guidelines may therefore stymie, as well as improve, the development by the ECtHR of children’s rights in juvenile justice. The English courts adopt the approach of their Strasbourg colleagues and interpret ECHR rights – given domestic legal effect by the HRA – using the CRC and associated soft law.
