ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on attempts made to incorporate international concepts of participation and transparency through a study of local children's hearings in Glasgow. Transnational documents are the Children's Convention or the European Right's Convention, take on significance in practice and acquire a reality that may subvert their original purpose. Children's hearings take the form of lay panels, consisting of three members who are unpaid volunteers and not required to have legal qualifications. Referrals are made by a reporter who is employed by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA), a national body charged with the management and deployment of reporters throughout Scotland. All panel members agree that their role is to reach a decision that is in the child's 'best interests'. In many cases what is important for children and families is the local, 'informal' law of family and neighbourhood that takes precedence over the national law that panel members seek to apply.
