James joined the Navy in 1998 as a Logistics Officer. He has held a variety of sea and shore appointments as a logistician and was selected to become a naval barrister in 2005. After completing pupillage at 18 Red Lion Court in 2007-8, he took up an appointment on the staff of the Director of Service Prosecutions. He has prosecuted and defended in numerous criminal matters including fraud, violence/disorder, sexual assault and various Armed Forces-only offences. He is currently serving as the Director of Naval Legal Services’ lead legal adviser for the Northern Region (which includes Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northern England).
Areas of Legal Practice
- Courts Martial and Crime. Advising Commanding Officers on the exercise of their summary jurisdiction under the Armed Forces Act 2006. Representing individuals in the Court Martial and Summary Appeal Court.
- The Law of the Sea and the Law of Armed Conflict. As they pertain to current operations for units based in the northern region.
- Administrative and employment law applicable to UK Armed Forces. Advising Commanding Officers on their statutory functions in dealing with Service Complaints from individual servicemen.
Article
International Criminal Law Review 2009, Volume 9, No 5, 833-854: James Farrant:
Is the Extra-territorial Application of the Human Rights Act Really Justified?
Maritime Logistics
As a logistics officer, James first gained experience of maritime security operations in the Northern Arabian Gulf and counter-piracy operations off Somalia while serving in HMS Bulwark. Bulwark was also part of the Operation Highbrow task force which conducted the evacuation of displaced personnel from Beirut during hostilities in 2006. Promoted Lieutenant Commander in 2009, he served as the Logistics Officer of HMS Cumberland from January 2010 until September 2011. Cumberland also deployed on maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf and on counter-piracy operations off Somalia. En route back to the UK, Cumberland was re-tasked to conduct the evacuation of civilian personnel from Benghazi in Libya during the Arab Spring uprisings in February 2011, and thereafter to take part in the NATO mission to enforce UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973 off the coast of Libya (Operations Deference and Ellamy respectively). James has also served briefly in HMS Edinburgh while she was in the Falklands, and in other maritime security tasking.
