He is currently not practising.
James Guthrie KC’s work can broadly be described as follows.
First, he specialises in a broad range of appellate work in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. This includes Constitutional Law, Human Rights, Public Law / Judicial Review, Commercial Law, Common Law and Criminal cases. In addition, he has considerable experience of litigation at firs instance and in the Courts of Appeal in Commonwealth countries, both in an advisory capacity and as an advocate.
He has been called to the Bars of the Turks and Caicos Islands, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, St Christopher & Nevis, Grenada, Bermuda, Belize, Antigua and The Bahamas, and has appeared in the Caribbean Court of Justice (the final Court of Appeal for those Caribbean countries that no longer accept the jurisdiction of the Privy Council). He has also recently appeared by special permission in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal of Mauritius. He appeared before the Privy Council at its first sittings in The Bahamas, and in Mauritius.
Described in the directories as a ‘first-class advocate’, and consistently recommended in the main law directories as a Leading Silk in Civil Liberties and Human Rights work, he frequently undertakes Privy Council appeals in such cases, including ‘death row’ cases.
James Guthrie was Head of Chambers from 2002 until October 2010. He was a Recorder trying criminal and civil cases up until 2021. He is a Master of the Bench of the Inner Temple and has been a Trustee of the Death Penalty Project since its inception in 2005.
