Edinburgh Napier University

  If we are to believe the media, reports of school bullying are on the increase. Although widely perceived as an educational rather than a legal issue, parents and pupils alike are beginning to look to legal redress where other attempts to resolve bullying have failed. There are, however, conceptual and practical difficulties to contend with: the continual emergence of new forms of bullying, such as “cyber-bullying” and “happy slapping”; the lack of any universal definition; the dearth of Scottish case law; and obscurity surrounding the nature and extent of school responsibility. These are just some of the challenges facing practitioners advising in this underdeveloped area of law