James Hamilton (born 20 March 1949) is an Irish

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and administrator who served as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

from 1999 to 2011. In September 2010, Hamilton was elected President of the

International Association of Prosecutors The International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) is a global non-governmental organisation of prosecutors, established by the United Nations in 1995, Vienna. It has 183 organizational members from 177 countries, and individual members. The IAP ...

, succeeding Francois Falletti. Hamilton became Director of Public Prosecutions in 1999, succeeding Eamonn Barnes. Before becoming Director of Public Prosecutions, Hamilton was a practising barrister and was head of the office of the

Attorney General of Ireland The Attorney General of Ireland ( ga, An tArd-Aighne) is a constitutional officer who is the legal adviser to the Government and is therefore the chief law officer of the State. The attorney general is not a member of the Government but does pa ...

. In 2018, Hamilton was appointed to chair a review into the anti-Fraud and anti-Corruption Measures in the Irish

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

, instituted by then

Tánaiste The Tánaiste ( , ) is the deputy head of the government of Ireland and thus holder of its second-most senior office. The Tánaiste is appointed by the President of Ireland on the advice of the Taoiseach. The current office holder is former Taoi ...

Frances Fitzgerald. He was appointed as an independent advisor to the Scottish Government on the ministerial code in 2013 by former

Scottish First Minister The first minister of Scotland ( sco, heid meinister o Scotland; gd, prìomh mhinistear na h-Alba ) is the head of the Scottish Government and keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. The first minister chairs ...

Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader ...

and was reappointed by his successor First Minister

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member of ...

in 2015. He was also appointed to the same role by the

Welsh Government The Welsh Government ( cy, Llywodraeth Cymru) is the Welsh devolution, devolved government of Wales. The government consists of ministers and Minister (government), deputy ministers, and also of a Counsel General for Wales, counsel general. Minist ...

. In 2017, he concluded that

Welsh First Minister , insignia = First Minister of Wales logo.png , insigniasize = 120px , insigniacaption = Logo , flag = Flag of Wales.svg , flagsize = 120px , flagborder = yes , flagcaption = Flag of Wales , image = File:Mark Drakeford (cropped).jpg , ...

Carwyn Jones Carwyn Howell Jones (born 21 March 1967) is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2009 to 2018. He served as Counsel General for Wales from 2007 to 2009. Jones served as the Member of the S ...

did not mislead the

Welsh Assembly The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...

over what he knew about bullying allegations at the top level of government. Hamilton also conducted an investigation into the

Alex Salmond scandal Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple peo ...

, namely whether Sturgeon had breached the Scottish ministerial code during the Scottish Government's investigation into sexual harassment complaints made against Salmond. This was paused in 2019 and resumed in August 2020. On 22 March 2021, his report was published, concluding that Sturgeon did not breach the ministerial code. However, he caveated that "It is for the Scottish parliament to decide whether they were in fact misled." A majority of MSPs on the

Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints The Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints was a Committees of the Scottish Parliament, Committee of the Scottish Parliament which was set up to investigate the Alex Salmond scandal, in which the Scottish Government ...

concluded that it was "hard to believe" Sturgeon when she told Parliament she had not known about concerns of inappropriate behaviour Mr Salmond before November 2017. It also determined that Sturgeon gave an "inaccurate account" of what happened when she met Mr Salmond at her home on 2 April 2018, and had misled the committee.

References

1949 births Living people 20th-century Irish lawyers Irish civil servants Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Irish lawyers {{Ireland-law-bio-stub