This paper discusses issues concerning legal protection and the legal rights of children, child law in the United States and in Europe, and attitudes of lawyers and child specialists regarding proposed changes in child protection and child rights laws. Several issues were identified. (1) How can children receive additional legal protection without detracting from the legal advantages that parents, teachers, and other adults enjoy because of their larger power base? (2) How can the unwanted side-effect of diminishing children's legal rights through the passing of child-protection laws be avoided? (3) At what age and under what circumstances should children be given adult legal status? (4) Do the rights in the Constitution apply to children as well as to adults? A large section of the paper is devoted to the problem of the inter-state coordination of child laws. This is handled in the U.S. through such mechanisms as the Constitutional provision of "full faith and credit" which instructs the various states to observe the laws of sister states. European mechanisms of inter-country coordination include international organizations such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe. In addition to this discussion, tentative findings are reported on the attitudes of groups of family and child workers in comparison to lawyers concerning their support of Scandinavian-type child-rights laws. In general, more of the child specialists than the lawyers were in favor of these laws. (Author/SS)