Mission, Vision & Aims

GIALS is an independent, non-profit institution dedicated to advance legal research, law reform initiatives, and improving the operations of the judicial system in Ghana. GIALS is an incorporated organisation with a governing council drawn from international consultants and expert practitioners.

Mission

• The Institute works with universities, the legal profession, industry, civil society organisations, and the community to develop programmes of research, consultancy and teaching with focus on social, economic and sustainable development.

• The Institute serves both a national and international constituency of legal practitioners and scholars, government officials and representatives of the private sector.

• The Institute is committed to academic freedom, critical scholarship, rational and creative thought, and free inquiry. It will be part of our mission to ensure that these ideals are upheld.

Vision

The vision is for GIALS to become a world-class legal think-tank and Ghana’s institutional provider of applied legal research for the sustenance of African development.

GIALS aims to:

• Initiate research into important issues of law reform, legal institutional development and judicial administration in Ghana, the West African & ECOWAS sub-region.

• Provide an avenue for the discussion and cross-fertilisation of ideas regarding development of the law in Africa and Ghana in particular, and in doing so act as the channel of communication to other similar research institutions worldwide.

• Promote advanced legal education in the country, and conduct educational programmes for members of the legal profession and others involved in the operation of law enforcement systems, i.e. the Judiciary, Police Service, Prison Services, Military Police, Immigration Service, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Social Welfare Department.

• Contribute towards the capacity building of faculty at the Faculty of Law, KNUST and other law faculties within the country.

• Develop a library and database of all existing legal materials, particularly legislation, law reports, international agreements and legal treatises which will become a national legal resource.

• Establish a Ghana legal information institute which will compile for public access a database of Ghana primary legal materials.

• Provide specialisation in law relating to various aspects of the country’s economic activities, such as oil & gas, petroleum & petrochemicals and mining laws, investment and intellectual property laws.

• Stimulate professional and public interest in the administration of justice through programmes of public engagement to encourage public awareness of the legal system and contribute to the development of training for citizenship in schools and colleges.