CHILD LABOUR: THE PARTIAL FIDUCIARY ACCOUNTABILITY OF PARENTS

Abstract

Parents have open access to the family-focused labour of their infant children. We impose no fiduciary proscription on the appropriation of that labour. The social consensus is premised on the benefits that accrue to the child, the family and the community. In other respects, parental access is closed or limited. The labour cannot be unreasonable, or wrongly exploitive. Nor may parents take the external earnings of their children. The constraints reflect the consensus as to the proper scope of open parental access. Beyond their open access, the opportunistic impulses of parents are regulated by fiduciary accountability.