Compulsory School Attendance and the Child's Wishes

Abstract

The decision of the House of Lords in Gillick v. West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority¹ is the latest in a long line of cases in which the doctrine of parental authority has come under attack. It raises fundamental questions about the nature of the legal relationship between parent and child² and although specifically concerned with parental authority in the context of medical treatment it clearly has much wider implications, for example in custody disputes³ and in Divorce Court financial settlements.⁴