James Beeton

12 King's Bench Walk

James specialises in cross-border personal injury claims, travel law and industrial disease litigation.

He frequently acts for and against the major tour operators in claims under the Package Travel Regulations and is experienced in cases raising jurisdictional and applicable law issues. He is a co-author of the 'Accidents Abroad' chapter of the 2018 edition of Butterworths Personal Injury Litigation Service and has been published in respect of holiday sickness claims in the Personal Injury Law Journal. He is a co-editor of the International & Travel Law Blog.

James has experience of international group litigation and enjoys working as part of a team. He was instructed by the claimants in Vilca v Xstrata Ltd, a case concerning allegations of unlawful detention and assault by a mining company against members of a Peruvian community. He was also instructed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the Kenyan Emergency Group Litigation - a group of claims brought by 40,000 Kenyans involving serious allegations of abuse and mistreatment during the Mau Mau insurgency in the 1950s.

James is also frequently instructed in claims for personal injuries arising out of aviation activities, including aircraft crashes.

James is experienced in claims for mesothelioma and asbestos-related disease, including appeals under the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme.

Contributed to

1

UK Rome I (transitional)—consumer contracts (Art 6)

Practice notes

This Practice Note considers consumer contracts in Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I). The Practice Note explains the process by which the applicable law is determined for consumer contracts and the limitations that apply for where the parties wish to make their own choice of law. A consumer contract will be governed by the law of the country in which the consumer has their habitual residence. The Practice Note explains how to determine the habitual residence of the consumer and why the formal validity requirements for other contracts do not apply when dealing with consumer contracts—the law of the country of habitual residence will apply instead. The Practice Note also considers the position in relation to contracts not falling within Article 6(1) as well as the specific exclusions which apply under Article 6.

Dispute Resolution