The Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Center for Applied Linguistics cooperated in a state-of-the-art study of the field of bilingual education. State-of-the-art papers were commisioned in four general areas concerning bilingual education: social science, languages and linguistics, law, and education. Each paper formed the central focus for a spearate conference at which it was discussed and elaborated upon by specialists from various fields within a given discipline. This volume is the third in a series of five volumes. The focus of the volume is the law. One major paper is presented, "The Legal Perspective," by Herbert Teitelbaum and Richard J. Hiller. This paper provides a historical perspective of legal issues related to bilingual education. The case of Lau v. Nichols, involving Chinese public school students and the San Francisco Unified School District, is described, as well as a number of similar cases. Common defenses offered by school boards for their failure to provide bilingual education are discussed, as well as bilingual education, and desegregation, and bilingualism in areas other than education. An article by A. John Wabaunsee, "Native American Viewpoint," concludes the volume. It deals with the problems encountered by Native Americans with bilingual education. (CLK)