Gamma decay modes and spin assignments of levels in 27A1 have been investigated by proton-y-ray angular correlation measurements in the 24Mg(~, PY) reaction at 14.2, 15 and 15.6 MeV bombarding energy and by y-ray angular distribution measurements on the Ep = 1820, 2114, 2293 and 2574 keV resonances of the 26Mg(p, 7) reaction. Unique spin assignments were obtained as follows: 1=3/2 for the 5827 keV state, I=5/2 for the 6115, 6465, 6765, 7577, 7721, 8097, 8136, 8324 keV states, I=7/2 for the 5433, 6533, 7413, 8037, 8442, 8586 keV states, I = 9/2 for the 5418, 6512, 6713, 7997 keV states, I = 11/2 for the 5500, 6948, 7400, 8396 keV states. The level scheme and electromagnetic properties of levels are compared with the results of shell model calculations which use the complete configuration space of the 0d5/2-1 s 1~2-0d3/2 shell and the unified s-d shell Hamiltonian. The agreement is good to excellent and extends into the region of high level density above 7 MeV excitation energy. The total B(M1T) below 8.5 MeV excitation energy is evaluated, using published resonance fluorescence and (e, e') data, and quenching relative to the flee-nucleon predictions is reexamined. Evidence in favour of a prolate ground state deformation of 27A1 and implications of this work for the astrophysically interesting 26Al(p, 7) reaction are discussed.