best interests of the child doctrine
best-interests-of-the-child doctrine. Family law. The principle that courts should make custody decisions based on whatever best advances the child’s welfare, regardless of a claimant’s particular status or relationship with the child. • One important factor entering into these decisions is the general belief that the child’s best interests normally favor custody by parents, as opposed to grandparents or others less closely related. The doctrine is quite old, having been stated, for example, in the early-19th-century case of Commonwealth v. Briggs, 33 Mass. 203 (1834). — Sometimes shortened to best-interests doctrine; best-interest doctrine. See PARENTAL-PREFERENCE DOCTRINE E.
