Table of contents
1. Centrality of the child's interest in family law - 2. Introduction on international sources and new European awareness - 3. Towards a unification of status also due to the "revelations" of science. Public order and unification of status - 4. Declinations of the child's interest up to the right of self-determination - 5. Protectionist dimension and different approaches in American and English experiences - 6. Freedom of religion and exercise of parental responsibility

Abstract
The contribution analyzes the different declinations, including in the religious sphere, of the relationship between the child's right to self-determination, closely linked to his or her capacity for discernment, and parental responsibility, also understood as a commitment to assume a parental function with respect for the dignity of the person.