ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at the meaning given to the welfare principle, the reasons for the controversy it now attracts and the growing legal significance attached to it. It examines the beginnings of the legal relationship between state, child and parents. The book explores the content and structural role of the welfare principle. It also examines the role and functions given to the welfare principle in public law, as represented almost exclusively the Children Act 1989, which governs coercive and consensual intervention by the state in matters affecting the upbringing of a child. The book identifies the formal place and role given to the principle in a private family law context, on matters affecting the upbringing of a child and examines the functions it performs.
