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Summary: The full title of this paper is: A Child’s Right to Expression in the Courtroom Under International Conventions on the Rights of Children and French National Law: Where Does This Leave the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights? Children’s rights have garnered much attention in the international community over the past several decades. With the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 – now the most widely ratified treaty in existence – certain rights have received only increasing recognition. Of particular importance is the child’s right to expression, as may be realized in legal proceedings concerning her. This right is granted under Article 12 of the UN Convention, and has sparked such interest as to spawn the creation of a subsequent regional instrument designed solely to further its implementation. As it came to be known, the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights was drafted in the hopes of reaffirming support for a child’s right to express her views in the courtroom. Unfortunately, the European Convention seems to have gathered nothing but dust in the regional, much less international, community. Even France – one of the first to ratify the U.N. Convention and a historically staunch supporter of children’s rights – has failed to ratify the instrument, preferring perhaps to rest on the more widely-acknowledged success of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This paper seeks to uncover the reasons behind the European Convention’s failure, looking at the instrument through both the lenses of its U.N. counterpart and the laws of a major European player in children’s rights – France. To begin, Parts II and III review the state of children’s rights to express themselves under the United Nations and European Conventions, presenting relevant background and implementation information where possible. Part IV further analyzes the European Convention, and presents many possible reasons behind its failure. Part V then provides an overview of French proceedings involving children, with a more detailed sketch of child protective and withdrawal of parental authority proceedings. Part VI puts French law into the international universe, and assesses current compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and potential future compliance with the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights. Finally, Part VII offers concluding remarks and suggested areas for future research.