The outpouring of education legislation, both primary and subordinate, continues unabated.

Education is one area where the government seems able to find more reason for statutory intervention.

The coming session of Parliament will see proposed laws on exclusions, greater selection and teacher training.

Labour also promises similar legislation as education is regarded as a major concern for all the parties.

The courts are deluged with disputes relating to the new rights created over the last 17 years.

Education cases form at least 5% of the Crown Office lists.

Litigation against private schools for wrongful expulsion and against local authorities and schools for negligence is now significant.Lawyers are consulted on areas of conflict such as admissions, exclusions and discipline.

In a recent case -- R v London Borough of Camden, ex p H (unreported) -- the courts were asked to act on behalf of a victim of bullies who had shot the pupil with an air gun but who, after a brief exclusion, were allowed to return to school.

The judge ruled that the victim's interests must be taken into account but could not determine the outcome of the appeals against exclusions, where the boys' concerns were paramount.

However, the Court of Appeal ([1996] The Times, 15 August) reversed the decision in the H case and required the school to reconsider whether the children should be reinstated, having regard not only to the interests of the children who were excluded but to the interests of the school as a whole.This principle, now accepted by the court, may have considerable impact on the debate sparked by the recent boycott by parents of a Nottinghamshire school where an allegedly unruly ten-year-old boy is receiving personal tuition to avoid a strike by teachers.

The Court of Appeal's decision in the H case may give interested parties the opportunity of challenging, by way of judicial review, decisions of governors or appeal committees to reinstate pupils when these were arguably not made in the interests of the school.Children with special needs now have the right to appeal to a tribunal.

But appeals from the tribunal under ord 55 can only be made by the local education authority or by a parent, who, unlike the child, may not qualify for legal aid.

This has not stopped the growth in the number of appeals, which are being filed at 50 a week.

Admissions appeals (or 'Julyitis') increase every year, even though the number of successful entrants reduces.

The tribunal may therefore be extended to cover admissions and exclusions, possibly with an education appeal tribunal.

This would resolve the worry that voluntary and grant-maintained schools can be both judge and jury.

Independent schools are also under pressure to introduce measures to ensure fairness in the same areas.

Curiously, the state system seems to provide more security than market forces in this respect.The expansion of interest in our education system by politicians and lawyers will certainly continue unabated.LEGAL AIDSeven-year-old Andrew Eaton made the headlines this week when he won legal aid to challenge his expulsion from Wellacre Infants School, Trafford, in the High Court.Peter Liell, a sole practitioner specialising in education l aw, and joint editor of The Law of Education (Butterworths), explains the position regarding legal aid in education cases: 'Legal aid can be applied for in the child's name in appropriate cases, such as claims based in negligence or contract or for applications for judicial review.

It is not currently available for appeals to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal.

Nor is "education" a discrete area of work for which a legal aid franchise can be applied for.

Education lawyers may therefore face difficulties and delays in extending green form cover and cannot self-certify for an emergency certificate.

Preliminary advice will be to the parent as client, either under green form or privately, unless the child is over compulsory school age [16] in which case a child who is still at school is usually eligible for green form advice.'