Juvenile Law Topics Reveal the Desperate Need for Family Restoration

This fall semester in Juvenile Law our purpose was to seek and discern God's truth as it applies to the legal issues that confront children and the juvenile law system. A primary goal was to encourage students to think critically through a pro-child juvenile jurisprudence, and then to articulate that legal philosophy through oral presentation and written work. The course provided a thorough overview of the nature and regulation of the law as it particularly pertains to children. Our focus became the representation of children to afford protection and provision in the biblical framework and context of the family.

Each student was charged with creating relevant legal scholarship for a socio-legal structure that is not presently exposed to an accurate and godly perspective on children and juvenile law. Concepts for research were chosen by each student as interested them. Articles were written and presentations were made of that research to the entire class, benefiting the group from the research of each individual student. The articles were excellent, and are all very informing and provocative. Each article will be presented here at Family Restoration over the next few weeks, in the season we celebrate the coming of the Christ Child, a fitting time to honor children in the law. As you will see, by the end of this course students understood how to integrate God’s principles for juvenile law issues and were prepared for practice and ministry in this area of the law.

The article linked below, Collaborative Family Law Towards Restoration for the Best Interests of the Child, by Betty Bogese Russo, illustrates that divorce itself places the best interests of the child at a disadvantage. In a divorce situation, however, when the parents work together toward the best interest of the child through a collaborative law process, cooperation between the divorcing parties can find a least detrimental alternative for children of divorce.

Devastation of a child’s life does not have to happen in the wake of family breakdown. Rather, from a perspective of family restoration, the best interests of a child can indeed be the highest priority. Read Betty’s article to find out.