Background
Prior to coming to the Bar, James worked as a researcher for three human rights organizations; Front Line Defenders - The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Dublin (where he remains a trustee and company director of the UK branch), the International Council on Human Rights Policy in Geneva and the Ethical Investment Research Service in London. He has provided advice to numerous other NGOs. He is a former member of the Policy Council at Liberty and the legal advisory panel at the Child Rights International Network.
James' international practice also includes consultancy for a number of NGOs. Most notably he was invited by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights to be part of an international group of experts to provide an independent review of their operations.
In 2013 James received a Pegasus Scholarship to work at Onyango & Co in Kampala. The firm is one of the leading human rights and international criminal law firms in East Africa.
James is a former member of the Independent Monitoring Board at Pentonville Prison. He has a PhD on policing and has lectured in law at the University of East London. He is a lecturer in criminology at the Open University.
Publications
Defending Hope: Dispatches from the Front Lines in Palestine and Israel, Dublin: Veritas (2018). (with Eoin Murray)
'Criminal Law, Evidence and Procedure' in D Clarry and C Sargeant (eds) (2017), UK Supreme Court Yearbook, London: Appellate Press, pp.324-335. (with Henry Blaxland QC and Joanne Cecil)
'Universal Jurisdiction for International Crimes in Irish Law', Irish Jurist (2010). (with Alan DP Brady)
'Crime, Globalisation and Human Rights' in Criminal Justice: Local and Global, Cullompton: Willan (2010). [Approximately 40,000 copies of this book have been sold.] (with Reece Walters and Louise Westmarland)
'Problematizing Prison Privatization', in Handbook of the Prison, Cullompton: Willan (2007). (with Abigail Rowe)
'Bringing Cases Against War Criminals: Universal Jurisdiction in Ireland', Law Society Gazette (July, 2006).
Training and Seminars
- Challenging Violations of Children's Rights through strategic litigation in Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, Child Rights International Network, Belgrade, November 2016.
- Challenging Police Brutality in Court: A Practical Approach, European Roma Rights Centre, Belgrade, October 2015
- Parole Reform and the ECHR, Irish Penal Reform Trust Prison Law Seminar, Dublin, October 2012
- Security and Protection in Human Rights Defenders' Cases, Avocats Sans Frontières and East Africa Law Society, Training for East African and Congolese Human Rights Lawyers, Kampala, June 2012
- Bringing Cases Against War Criminals: Universal Jurisdiction in Ireland, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Universal Jurisdiction Conference, Malaga, March 2006
James has a PhD in policing and has lectured in law at the University of East London. He is a lecturer in criminology at the Open University.
Awards
As part of the team of lawyers representing families at the Hillsborough Inquests, James received Outstanding Achievement Awards from the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2016 and the Modern Law Awards 2016.
In 2009 he was nominated for the Bar Pro Bono Award for his contribution to the case of Balaj et al. before the UNMIK Human Rights Advisory Panel for Kosovo.
