In this era of increasingly extensive legal regulation of human behavior,
there is one type of human conduct which seems almost unpermeable to legal
regulation: the education of children. The problematics of exercising
educational or disciplinary powers against children concern a variety of
situations, including the prima facie infringements of many
personal rights of children. The most typical limitation of the rights of
children by disciplinary measures is, of course, corporal punishment, that
is, by actual chastisement conducted by a parent, a guardian, a
schoolteacher or any other adult responsible for the training or education
of children. However, children are also liable to the infringement of other
rights. To a great extent, a child does not fully enjoy many personal
physical rights considered to be indisputable for an older person. Thus, for
example, a child's detention against his will may not constitute false
imprisonment, and the seizure of a child's most intimate personal property
may not be considered trespass. It is only for the sake of simplicity,
therefore, that I prefer to focus our short discussion on the most
conspicuous instance of this general phenomenon, namely, the deliberate
physical assault of children.