Hakilab

Inspiration

Inspiration

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), accessing reliable legal information is a massive challenge. Legal professionals still rely on physical archives, and citizens are often disconnected from their fundamental rights due to the complexity of the law. We created HakiLab to bridge this gap. Our inspiration comes from the need for "Legal Sovereignty"—using AI to make the DRC’s justice system more transparent, accessible, and efficient for lawyers, judges, and every Congolese citizen.

What it does

HakiLab is an AI-powered secure legal vault and assistant. For Professionals: It allows Law Firms to digitize and manage cases with a strict role-based access system (Heads of Chambers vs. Associates). It features an "AI Judge" that analyzes evidence (PDFs and photos) against the DRC Constitution to detect non-compliance or legal flaws. For the Public: It serves as an open library of DRC legislation (Constitution, Codes, Jurisprudence). Users can ask questions in French, Swahili, or Lingala, and receive answers strictly grounded in the official law. For Scholars: It provides a platform to publish legal doctrines, where an AI gatekeeper checks for plagiarism and legal consistency before publication.

How we built it

We used a modern "Vibe Coding" approach with: Google Gemini 1.5 Pro API: For its massive context window and multimodal capabilities (analyzing legal documents and photos). Firebase (Google Cloud): Firestore for real-time data and hierarchical legal collections. Authentication for role-based security. Cloud Storage for the encrypted legal vault. Next.js & Tailwind CSS: For a premium, institutional UI featuring the DRC flag, the advocate’s toga, and the scales of justice. Google Cloud Vision: To perform OCR on scanned physical legal documents.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was Grounding. We had to ensure the AI wouldn't "hallucinate" or invent laws. We solved this by implementing a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) system where Gemini is forced to cite the exact article of the DRC Constitution for every claim. We also struggled with complex Firebase security rules to ensure that a lawyer from one firm could never access the vault of another, which we fixed by implementing strict document-level permissions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Successfully building a multilingual AI that can explain complex legal concepts from the DRC Civil Code in local languages like Swahili. Creating a secure vault that feels as professional as a physical law firm but with the speed of light. Integrating Gemini Vision to analyze handwritten or old legal papers, which is a game-changer for the Congolese administrative context.

What we learned

We learned the power of Context Caching in the Gemini API and how to build a production-grade RAG pipeline. We also deepened our understanding of the DRC's legal structure—from the fundamental Constitution to local customs. More importantly, we learned that technology can be a powerful tool for social justice when built with local context in mind

What's next for Hakilab

Haki-Smart-Contracts: Automated generation of legal contracts for SMEs in DRC. Mobile Integration: A lightweight version for rural lawyers with offline legal databases. Partnership with Bar Associations: We aim to pilot HakiLab in real law firms in Bukavu and Goma to refine the "AI Judge" based on real-world feedback from Congolese magistrates.

Built With

• firebare
• react