The exercise of the fundamental rights of children and adolescents and its limits: towards a truly constitutional interpretation

For the exercise of human rights it is fundamental to understand the meaning of the limits because a restriction of rights must be founded and justified according to the general theory of limits.The case of children and adolescents presents an even greater complexity because it is necessary to reconcile the particularities of their development with the principles of the best interests of the child and progressive autonomy with the theory of fundamental rights.This paper analyzes this issue, until now very little covered by the doctrine. After raising some fundamental assumptions about the rights of minors, it questions how this reconciliation should be carried out, specifically with the rules and principles of Constitutional Law, using the chilean case as an example, which shows the need to have general criteria on the matter.