

In Great Britain, the character of Dredd and his name are sometimes invoked in discussions of police states, authoritarianism, and the rule of law. He is a " street judge", empowered to summarily arrest, convict, sentence, and execute criminals.

Judge Dredd is a law enforcement and judicial officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One, which covers most of the east coast of North America. He also appears in a number of film and video game adaptations. He is the magazine's longest-running character. He first appeared in the second issue of 2000 AD (1977), which is a British weekly anthology comic.

Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra.
