Vision and Mission – Research & Library Services

Our Vision

Vision 2031
RALS is the trusted engine of JSW Law’s knowledge mission: it makes JSW Law Bhutan’s leading centre of legal scholarship and a credible regional voice, and it preserves and shares Bhutanese legal knowledge for future generations.

Our mission

To create, curate, preserve and share legal and policy knowledge by supporting rigorous and ethical research, providing authoritative information resources, safeguarding institutional and legal heritage, and convening and publishing scholarship that serves Bhutan and the world.

Strategic principles

Eight principles guide every decision RALS takes about its programmes, resources and services.

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Mission-led, not activity-led: every forum, publication and project must serve the approved research agenda.
Build on what is approved: RALS implements and measures its existing instruments before writing new rules, and keeps them consistent with each other.
Faculty excellence needs time, incentives and support: research plans, protected time, mentoring and recognition.
Sustainability by design: RALS builds its own funding base and contributes to that of the institution.

Documented and reviewable governance: clear authority, committees, workflows and service standards.
Library and Archives serve research: information and heritage functions are judged by how well they enable research and teaching.
Students are contributors: student volunteers, editors and researchers are part of the research system.
Excellence with humility: evidence before claims, honesty about limits and scholarship for public value.

Our culture commitments

The values of Justice, Service and Wisdom on which JSW Law was founded run through all of this work. RALS will be judged by whether it demonstrably strengthens JSW Law’s research, the quality of the information on which that research rests, the preservation of what it produces and the reach of its scholarship, under rules that are clear, consistent and kept.

Research and learning first:

We serve research and learning before anything else.

Colleagues in a shared mission:

We treat faculty, students and partners as colleagues in a shared knowledge mission.

Integrity

We put ethics before data and evidence before claims.

Accountability

We document decisions, follow our own rules and preserve what we produce.

Quality over volume:

we recognise quality, collaboration and public value, and not volume alone.