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The well being of children of heterosexual unions is a key logic in rulings against same-sex marriage in recent court cases in Washington, New York and the current court case over Proposition 8 in California. This paper will being with an examination of the historical development of children's rights and welfare vis-à-vis their parents in the U.S. and in international law and how these arguments have been used to defend 'traditional' marriage. The paper will suggest that international law and institutions addressing children's rights and welfare have created a globalized child, one that possesses the same needs and wants and requires identical rights. According to international laws and norms addressing children, all children under age 18 cannot be denied these rights regardless of gender, nationality, religion and other social markers that are employed to categorize children. This paper will argue that opposition to same-sex marriage based on distinguishing rights for some children (those of heterosexual parents) as opposed to other children (those of queer unions) is ultimately unsustainable given the trends in children's rights nationally and internationally in the last 60 years. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of international law and norms in shaping international law regarding the death penalty for child offenders under the age of 18. Drawing principally on the archives of Amnesty International USA in Boulder, Colorado and the University of Minnesota?s human rights library in Minneapolis as well as other primary and secondary legal sources, the paper will present the history of the norm abolishing the death penalty for child offenders. This inquiry will include the sudden international cascade of abolition in the 1960s and 1970s as well the concerted activism responsible for achieving compliance with international norms and law regarding the death penalty and children in the last two decades. By contextualizing two pivotal cases, the United States and India, within the norm?s lifecycle, the study will analyze how international law shapes national law and policy regarding children and justice. Through the theories of constructivism, sociological institutionalism and international law, it will investigate domestic versus international sources of law including the role of emulation, international pressure, and social movements. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lifecycle of the norm abolishing the death penalty for child offenders who are 18 years or younger took 80 years to complete. From its origin in Russia in 1922 to its twilight in the United States (U.S.) in 2005, a total of 134 countries are believed to have abolished the death penalty for child offenders. This study will present the history of abolition for child offenders globally. Through international relations theory, especially constructivism, world polity approaches from sociology, and international legal theory, it will argue that the norm emerged primarily in European and Latin American countries that were well-integrated into the international system. Emergence was followed by a rapid cascade that occurred in the early 1960s, ushering in a period of acceptance that ended in 2005 with U.S. compliance. This study will also assess arguments that suggest there were different motivations for abolition at different periods in the norm’s lifecycle. It will address the motivations of states that comply as well as the primary methods of diffusion for early and late adopters, the role of international and regional law in shaping state behavior, the intrinsic quality of the norm and other indicators such as region, regime type, gross domestic product and the advent of compulsory education. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]