The significant difference between modernity and past eras is that modernity emphasises choice and autonomy and the past relied upon fate. The author enquires both into the effectiveness of constitutions in seeking to protect the autonomous rights of children and whether a global culture of children's constitutional rights is beginning to develop. Children's civil and political constitutional rights are analysed as well as their economic, social and cultural constitutional rights, as it is the poorest children, who many unthinkingly dismiss as being beyond the scope of justiciability and the courts. Article published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London
