Editing Judge Dredd (section)

===The Judge system===
{{Main|Mega-City One#Judges}}
Street Judges act as police, judge, jury, and executioner. Capital punishment in Mega-City One is rarely used,<ref>''2000 AD'' #261, 630, 1337, and ''Batman/Judge Dredd: Die Laughing'' #1-2 (1998)</ref> though deaths while [[resisting arrest]] are commonplace. Numerous writers have used the Judge System to satirize contemporary politics.

Judges, once appointed, can be broadly characterised as "Street Judges" (who patrol the city), and administrative (office-based) Judges. The Justice Department is responsible not only for law enforcement, but is also the government, since the United States was overthrown in 2070 following the [[Third World War]], which devastated much of America. The Judges are a ruling class, the ordinary citizens having no participation in government except at the municipal level. Dredd was once offered the job of Chief Judge, but he refused it.<ref>''2000 AD'' #108</ref>

The Judge System has spread world-wide, with various super-cities possessing similar methods of law enforcement. As such, this political model has become the most common form of government on Earth, with only a few small areas practicing civilian rule.