Sir James William Colvile (12 January 1810 – 6 December 1880) was a British lawyer, civil servant and then judge in India, and a judge on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the court of last resort for the British colonies.

[1] He practised at Lincoln's Inn for ten years before being appointed Advocate General to the East India Company in 1845.

He was made a Privy Councillor, initially as an Assessor to the Judicial Committee of the Council of India appeals, and eventually as a full member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

[1] He gave the decision of the Judicial Committee in two constitutional cases from Canada dealing with federal jurisdiction over railways: Dow v. Black (1875), and Bourgoin v La Compagnie du Chemin de Fer de Montréal, Ottawa & Occidental, and Ross (1880).

[1] He married in 1857 Frances Elinor, daughter of Sir John Peter Grant, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., of Rothiemurchus, lieutenant-governor of Lower Bengal.