The development of child trafficking within international law: A socio-legal and archival analysis

Human trafficking has appeared in numerous international instruments since the early twentieth century, and predates the formation of the current international legal system.1 This chapter seeks to demonstrate the emergence of child trafficking within the legislative sphere of the League of Nations through undertaking research within the League of Nations archives, Geneva. This case study investigated the legal and policy responses to child trafficking, focusing upon the 1920s after the adoption of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (1921). The adoption of a socio-legal lens for analysing law, policy and society within the archives enhanced the innovative methodological approach of the research. The project provided unique insights into the perceptions of children and childhood of the period in addition to highlighting the responses to child trafficking during the era of the League of Nations. Moreover, this chapter demonstrates the underutilised value of archival research within the context of legal scholarship and the manifold benefits it can bring to socio-legal research