The most basic issue for us all is whether historic balances struck between parental and state authority over children remain appropriate, particularly as both national and international understandings of children and childhood evolve. This collection is intended to raise important questions for policy makers in the United States in light of the unanimous acceptance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the international community. It will also be of interest to other nations as they struggle to implement the objectives of the CRC. It is a more contested assertion; children should have an age-appropriate and gradually increasing right to self-determination, as well as the ability to meaningfully participate in decisions that affect them. In other countries the lines drawn historically to balance authority over children between family and state have been substantially redrawn and they have moved beyond the traditional notions confining the family and afford greater protection and support for the child as an individual.