What Happens with Education when the Convention on the Rights of the Child becomes Law
The Convention on the Rights of the Child became Swedish law on the 1st of January 2020. It was preceded by a process during which stakeholder bodies expressed different views. While some have welcomed the decision and emphasized the importance of children's rights being given greater legal weight, others have warned of unpredictability, and that many court cases will now be required. It is clear, however, that for Swedish schools, the decision to give the Convention the status of law represents another step of juridification where the legal framing of education has already been subject to major changes, especially in the last decade.
The purpose of this project is to contribute knowledge on what happens when the Convention on the Rights of the Child is enacted at different levels of the Swedish school system. In this study, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is understood as a case of juridification, which broadly means that a situation or an issue takes on a legal or a changed legal character. To answer the purpose, the project uses a conceptual framework that has been developed to analyse the relation between juridification and education.
Two studies are conducted, one focusing on the school system at the national level (three school authorities) and one on the local level (three municipalities with two compulsory schools in each municipality). The methods used are text analysis and interviews.
The purpose of this project is to contribute knowledge on what happens when the Convention on the Rights of the Child is enacted at different levels of the Swedish school system. In this study, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is understood as a case of juridification, which broadly means that a situation or an issue takes on a legal or a changed legal character. To answer the purpose, the project uses a conceptual framework that has been developed to analyse the relation between juridification and education.
Two studies are conducted, one focusing on the school system at the national level (three school authorities) and one on the local level (three municipalities with two compulsory schools in each municipality). The methods used are text analysis and interviews.
Final report
What Happens with Education when the Convention on the Rights of the Child becomes Law? Final report on research project (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, P21-0148)
Purpose of the project and its development
The project What Happens with Education when the Convention on the Rights of the Child becomes Law? takes as its point of departure the decision of the Swedish Parliament to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) into Swedish law from 1 January 2020 (SFS 2018:1197). This decision is studied as an example of juridification, which broadly refers to a situation or issue taking on a legal or changed legal character. With juridification as its overarching interest, the purpose of the project is to contribute knowledge about what happens when the CRC is enacted at different levels of the Swedish school system. In addition, it also aims to contribute knowledge to the research community and support the continued development of the Swedish school system and other welfare sectors. A key prerequisite has been to bring together research from educational and legal sciences, a combination that has previously been uncommon. The interdisciplinary research group has adopted the name JURED (Juridification and Education). The project has been carried out as planned, with some empirical adjustments.
Brief overview of the implementation
The project reports results from several empirical sub-studies. Two examine enactments at the national level (four authorities) and the local level (six schools in different municipalities). Additional sub-studies analyse legal texts, previous research, and international policy documents, contributing knowledge about juridification as part of broader societal change. The project is grounded in curriculum theory as a common framework, with particular attention to language use, combined with a conceptual framework for analysing dimensions of juridification in different enactments. As juridification creates new empirical situations, the project has also involved theorising and theory development drawing on the disciplines represented in the research team.
The three most important results of the project and reflections on its conclusions
1. Juridification as part of the transformation of the welfare state
The project contributes knowledge highlighting how juridification, in a broader sense, reflects changes in the governance and organisation of the welfare state. Using Sweden and the United Kingdom as examples, it shows how different trends interact to drive juridification: marketisation, accountability and human rights (Bergh, Murphy & Nylund 2025). From a historical perspective, juridification is also shown to provide new means of differentiation, as the changing political use of legal instruments creates new dividing lines that redistribute power and responsibility between education, politics and law (Bergh & Forsberg 2024). Although previous research has offered important insights, it has so far provided only fragmented and incomplete pictures of this multifaceted phenomenon. The project contributes to broader contextualisation by transcending previously separate fields of research and by bringing together and theorising a multi-level empirical basis. Overall, the project highlights and critically discusses the forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, the juridification of the education sector from a global–national–local perspective.
2. Different forms of juridification and its democratic ambivalence
Through a comparison of different areas of legislation (SFS 2018:1197 versus SFS 2010:800 and SFS 2008:567), the project shows that juridification is far from a singular phenomenon. Rather, it may take many forms with widely varying consequences. The CRC constitutes an example of what the project terms elusive juridification, characterised by symbolic legal status and uncertainty regarding how the law should be enacted and implemented (Arneback & Lerwall 2025). This contrasts with accountability-driven juridification, characterised by detailed legal obligations and enforcement mechanisms. These examples illustrate the multiple manifestations of legislation, as well as its possibilities and limitations. Legal regulations are a foundation for democracy and can be an important means of social change. However, when the law is used in ways that exceed its capacities, often fuelled by a political desire to avoid responsibility, questions arise about what happens at the various levels of the school system where the law is interpreted and implemented. This question leads to the next section.
3. Universal rights are realised differently in socially unequal contexts
Studies of how the CRC is enacted at national and local levels show that a universal rights framework does not have a uniform impact on the education system. At the national level, the CRC appears mainly as a strong and largely uncontested political discourse, while its legal application remains challenging and concrete guidance for schools is limited. This creates considerable scope for local interpretation and prioritisation. Studies of schools in different socio-economic and ethnic contexts further show that the CRC is enacted differently depending on local conditions. In resource-rich environments, the rights discourse is often mobilised by guardians to strengthen individual claims and influence school decisions. In more socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts, the CRC is to a greater extent used by school staff to legitimise boundary-setting, protective measures and order-creating interventions. The findings also suggest that these boundaries are easier to establish when guardians come from minority cultures. Legalisation thus interacts with existing structures of inequality and may both reproduce and, in some cases, challenge established power relations.
Reflections on the project’s main conclusions
The choice to study the enactment of the CRC is not merely an empirical example of reform, but provides an analytical lens through which broader changes in the democratic organisation of the contemporary welfare state become visible.
By using the incorporation of the CRC as an empirical case and theorising its enactment, the project has analysed juridification in concrete practices and contexts. The processes through which the CRC is translated show how legal norms are interpreted, reshaped and endowed with meaning. When universal rights and legal reforms are enacted in local practices, socio-economic and ethnic conditions, organisational resources and professional cultures play a decisive role. Juridification thus emerges as a process that may both reproduce and challenge inequality.
The project’s interdisciplinary approach has highlighted how juridification emerges at the intersection of different systems, activities and fields of knowledge, and how it interacts with and is shaped by other forces. Rather than treating juridification as a technical or administrative phenomenon, the project shows that it operates as a dynamic process that restructures the distribution of knowledge, values, power, responsibility and authority. When political goals, professional mandates and interpersonal issues are translated into legal categories, not only governance techniques change, but also the conditions for democratic responsibility, professional judgement and civic participation.
The project also offers a dynamic understanding of the self-reinforcing logic of juridification. While teachers and other welfare professionals have traditionally been entrusted with addressing complex problems, juridification contains forces that seek to transform them into legally clear and well-defined issues. However, when complex social problems are identified as gaps in the regulatory framework and addressed through additional legislation, juridification risks becoming both the definition of the problem and its solution. This insight is particularly relevant at a time when legislation appears to be an increasingly taken-for-granted political approach. The project thus contributes knowledge about the possibilities, limitations and consequences of legislation for democracy and welfare.
New research questions
The project has shed light on an area that has previously received limited research attention. Although it is not new that the education system is regulated by law, the law has until recently been viewed as an integral part of policy, often taken for granted rather than subjected to critical analysis.
The project contributes new empirical and theoretical knowledge. It identifies a need for a deeper understanding of the relationships between different subsystems (education, politics, and law: EduPoL), the connections between forms of governance and the distribution of responsibility, and the importance of context in assessing the possibilities, challenges, and appropriateness of legal instruments in different welfare institutions. In research on children’s rights, it is particularly important to balance the child perspective with space for children’s own voices.
Dissemination of the research, its results, and collaboration
The project’s research has been presented at European and Nordic education research conferences (ECER, NERA), the Nordic Curriculum Theory Conference, the Nordic Education Law Symposium, the international Differentiation Renaissance Conference, and the national conferences The Child in School and Children’s Right to Development. Presentations have included keynote lectures, symposia and papers.
Project members have presented the project in a range of lectures and training programmes, for teachers, lawyers, and school leaders, as well as the Swedish National Agency for Education’s programme for superintendents. The project leader is also a member of the Agency’s scientific council, an example of collaboration in which issues related to policy, law, public administration, and professional responsibilities are central.
Purpose of the project and its development
The project What Happens with Education when the Convention on the Rights of the Child becomes Law? takes as its point of departure the decision of the Swedish Parliament to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) into Swedish law from 1 January 2020 (SFS 2018:1197). This decision is studied as an example of juridification, which broadly refers to a situation or issue taking on a legal or changed legal character. With juridification as its overarching interest, the purpose of the project is to contribute knowledge about what happens when the CRC is enacted at different levels of the Swedish school system. In addition, it also aims to contribute knowledge to the research community and support the continued development of the Swedish school system and other welfare sectors. A key prerequisite has been to bring together research from educational and legal sciences, a combination that has previously been uncommon. The interdisciplinary research group has adopted the name JURED (Juridification and Education). The project has been carried out as planned, with some empirical adjustments.
Brief overview of the implementation
The project reports results from several empirical sub-studies. Two examine enactments at the national level (four authorities) and the local level (six schools in different municipalities). Additional sub-studies analyse legal texts, previous research, and international policy documents, contributing knowledge about juridification as part of broader societal change. The project is grounded in curriculum theory as a common framework, with particular attention to language use, combined with a conceptual framework for analysing dimensions of juridification in different enactments. As juridification creates new empirical situations, the project has also involved theorising and theory development drawing on the disciplines represented in the research team.
The three most important results of the project and reflections on its conclusions
1. Juridification as part of the transformation of the welfare state
The project contributes knowledge highlighting how juridification, in a broader sense, reflects changes in the governance and organisation of the welfare state. Using Sweden and the United Kingdom as examples, it shows how different trends interact to drive juridification: marketisation, accountability and human rights (Bergh, Murphy & Nylund 2025). From a historical perspective, juridification is also shown to provide new means of differentiation, as the changing political use of legal instruments creates new dividing lines that redistribute power and responsibility between education, politics and law (Bergh & Forsberg 2024). Although previous research has offered important insights, it has so far provided only fragmented and incomplete pictures of this multifaceted phenomenon. The project contributes to broader contextualisation by transcending previously separate fields of research and by bringing together and theorising a multi-level empirical basis. Overall, the project highlights and critically discusses the forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, the juridification of the education sector from a global–national–local perspective.
2. Different forms of juridification and its democratic ambivalence
Through a comparison of different areas of legislation (SFS 2018:1197 versus SFS 2010:800 and SFS 2008:567), the project shows that juridification is far from a singular phenomenon. Rather, it may take many forms with widely varying consequences. The CRC constitutes an example of what the project terms elusive juridification, characterised by symbolic legal status and uncertainty regarding how the law should be enacted and implemented (Arneback & Lerwall 2025). This contrasts with accountability-driven juridification, characterised by detailed legal obligations and enforcement mechanisms. These examples illustrate the multiple manifestations of legislation, as well as its possibilities and limitations. Legal regulations are a foundation for democracy and can be an important means of social change. However, when the law is used in ways that exceed its capacities, often fuelled by a political desire to avoid responsibility, questions arise about what happens at the various levels of the school system where the law is interpreted and implemented. This question leads to the next section.
3. Universal rights are realised differently in socially unequal contexts
Studies of how the CRC is enacted at national and local levels show that a universal rights framework does not have a uniform impact on the education system. At the national level, the CRC appears mainly as a strong and largely uncontested political discourse, while its legal application remains challenging and concrete guidance for schools is limited. This creates considerable scope for local interpretation and prioritisation. Studies of schools in different socio-economic and ethnic contexts further show that the CRC is enacted differently depending on local conditions. In resource-rich environments, the rights discourse is often mobilised by guardians to strengthen individual claims and influence school decisions. In more socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts, the CRC is to a greater extent used by school staff to legitimise boundary-setting, protective measures and order-creating interventions. The findings also suggest that these boundaries are easier to establish when guardians come from minority cultures. Legalisation thus interacts with existing structures of inequality and may both reproduce and, in some cases, challenge established power relations.
Reflections on the project’s main conclusions
The choice to study the enactment of the CRC is not merely an empirical example of reform, but provides an analytical lens through which broader changes in the democratic organisation of the contemporary welfare state become visible.
By using the incorporation of the CRC as an empirical case and theorising its enactment, the project has analysed juridification in concrete practices and contexts. The processes through which the CRC is translated show how legal norms are interpreted, reshaped and endowed with meaning. When universal rights and legal reforms are enacted in local practices, socio-economic and ethnic conditions, organisational resources and professional cultures play a decisive role. Juridification thus emerges as a process that may both reproduce and challenge inequality.
The project’s interdisciplinary approach has highlighted how juridification emerges at the intersection of different systems, activities and fields of knowledge, and how it interacts with and is shaped by other forces. Rather than treating juridification as a technical or administrative phenomenon, the project shows that it operates as a dynamic process that restructures the distribution of knowledge, values, power, responsibility and authority. When political goals, professional mandates and interpersonal issues are translated into legal categories, not only governance techniques change, but also the conditions for democratic responsibility, professional judgement and civic participation.
The project also offers a dynamic understanding of the self-reinforcing logic of juridification. While teachers and other welfare professionals have traditionally been entrusted with addressing complex problems, juridification contains forces that seek to transform them into legally clear and well-defined issues. However, when complex social problems are identified as gaps in the regulatory framework and addressed through additional legislation, juridification risks becoming both the definition of the problem and its solution. This insight is particularly relevant at a time when legislation appears to be an increasingly taken-for-granted political approach. The project thus contributes knowledge about the possibilities, limitations and consequences of legislation for democracy and welfare.
New research questions
The project has shed light on an area that has previously received limited research attention. Although it is not new that the education system is regulated by law, the law has until recently been viewed as an integral part of policy, often taken for granted rather than subjected to critical analysis.
The project contributes new empirical and theoretical knowledge. It identifies a need for a deeper understanding of the relationships between different subsystems (education, politics, and law: EduPoL), the connections between forms of governance and the distribution of responsibility, and the importance of context in assessing the possibilities, challenges, and appropriateness of legal instruments in different welfare institutions. In research on children’s rights, it is particularly important to balance the child perspective with space for children’s own voices.
Dissemination of the research, its results, and collaboration
The project’s research has been presented at European and Nordic education research conferences (ECER, NERA), the Nordic Curriculum Theory Conference, the Nordic Education Law Symposium, the international Differentiation Renaissance Conference, and the national conferences The Child in School and Children’s Right to Development. Presentations have included keynote lectures, symposia and papers.
Project members have presented the project in a range of lectures and training programmes, for teachers, lawyers, and school leaders, as well as the Swedish National Agency for Education’s programme for superintendents. The project leader is also a member of the Agency’s scientific council, an example of collaboration in which issues related to policy, law, public administration, and professional responsibilities are central.