Institutional Principles
»Group for Legal and Political Studies is based upon a set of principles determined by its mission. The principles themselves serve as a basis which the whole activity of the Group should be based upon. Institutional principles are set below.
[ACADEMIC RESEARCH ONLY]
»Group for Legal and Political Studies is an academic research institution; therefore its mission is primarily dedicated to the furthering of scholarship upon politics, law and economics. Group does not usually engage in advocacy, given that it would assume a political bias, nevertheless under the view of the Research Committee the advocacy in non-politicized issues might be allowed. Even in those cases, the advocacy itself can only follow an agenda that demands acquisition of the policy-solutions found by the Group’s research itself. In any case, the Group’s mission holds as priority the academic research.
[NON-PARTISANSHIP]
»Group for Legal and Political Studies is a non-partisan institution. It can never belong to a political party, or follow any political party’s intentions. In view of that, Group cannot participate or get affiliated with any party’s organizations, forums, or other institutions. Moreover, Group does not admit researchers who are members of political organizations.
[NON-PROFIT STATUS]
»Group for Legal and Political Studies is a non-profit organization. Its financial status is pro bono publico. The whole incomes of the Group are expended for the academic aims of the Group only; therefore the final aim of expenditures is the making of impact through conducting qualitative research. In addition, expenditures undertaken from the Group are primarily aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the research conducted from the Group. In view of that, Group does not raise incomes with aims other than academic.
[NO POLITICAL AGENDA]
»Group for Legal and Political Studies cannot hold any political agenda. Therefore Group’s research excludes any potential interference from the governments or political institutions. In addition, the research conducted by the Group cannot support any political agenda. In view of that, Group can only have an academic-based agenda, meaning that its policy-analyses do show a neutral but analytical approach towards the relevant topics being researched. No research can produce a hypothesis which shows political preference towards any political agenda. However, if the analysis produced, with concrete evidence where the argumentation is based upon, can be interpreted as a political preference towards a political agenda, then the Research Committee takes ex-officio the action to commission an external panel of reviewers for considering the argumentation’s neutrality and its scientific ground.
[ADVANCEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE ONLY]
»Group for Legal and Political Studies is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge only, meaning that the furthering of academic findings is primarily conducted with the aim to further the scholarship. Nevertheless, through the primary aim, Group for Legal and Political Studies’ research findings aspire to build up an academic impact as to be able to improve the governances throughout the world.
[DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION]
»Group for Legal and Political Studies is committed to offer a transparent research environment. Group’s researchers are obliged to disclose their involvement into any external activity, prior to conduct research. As such, the research authors’ external engagement can be transparent to everyone, therefore the research reviewers can inspect if there is any conflict of interest between the policy-analysis produced and the personal engagement of the researchers involved into that research. Consequently, any potential conflict of interest can be inspected and found, thus aiming to save the quality of research itself.
[CONFLICT OF INTEREST]
»Group for Legal and Political Studies is committed to offer a ‘conflict of interest’ free environment. In view of that, the Board of Trustees will conduct annual reviews upon the researchers and staff involved into research, with the intention to check if any potential conflict of interest is consumed. As a result, a conflict of interest has been consumed in every circumstance when a researcher has been subject to external financing or political involvement, without the permission of the Research Committee. In addition, the Research Committee will, in every case, inspect if there has been any outside interference into the policy-analysis product, moreover any researcher’s financial position will be checked against the research being conducted, aiming to find if the private financial position of the researcher is dependable upon the result that the research will produce.
[INTERNATIONAL ADVISING]
»Group for Legal and Political Studies is dedicated to internationally-approved researches. In addition, Group holds that there can be no paper produced, with an international or European-wide scope, without the suggestions and prior consultation of world-class scientists or centres of research. Consequently, Group is committed to produce an internationally qualified research allowing a cross-national review process to take place in each individual research.