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Neville Harris, Professor of Law, University of Manchester, UK, "The Three 'R's' - Rights, Remedies and Regulation: The Legal Frontiers of Education in the 1990s", in "Education Law", Liverpool Law Review XX/1 (1998), 7-40: The right to education is a fundamental human right. In England and Wales, education rights have formed part of an increasingly complex legal framework surrounding educational provision. The past two decades have witnessed an unprecedented degree of legislative reform governing education; and the system which emerged from R.A. Butler's Education Act 1944 has been transformed. The education system now operates in an environment of intense regulation, which has had serious implications for the professional autonomy of teachers and for the determination and consequences of education "success" and "failure". It has also been subjected to the forces of consumerism, in particular through a policy a promoting choice in education. Important rights and remedies have been introduced, but choice has proved an illusory concept. The Labour Government elected in 1997 has put a particularly strong emphasis on quality in schoolsat a time when opportunities for litigation in respect of defective provision are opening up. The combination of consumerist forces and individual expectations raised by the political focus on educational standards and the emergent concept of "stakeholderism" is likely to result in increasing resort to law by dissatisfied parents, students and others. e-mail: Neville.Harris@man.ac.uk

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