Council of Five

The Council of Five is a legislature and court in the Judge Dredd comic strip appearing in 2000 AD. It first appeared in 2000 AD prog 86 (1978), when it was said to simply be a court for senior judges: "a council of five." When it appeared again in prog 182 (1980), it was then said to be the governing body of Mega-City One.

The Council is the highest lawmaking body of Mega-City One and has sovereign power. It is also the court which tries Mega-City judges who are accused of breaking the law. A unanimous verdict is required to convict. A majority is a quorum.

When making decisions that affect the city they have been shown to generally make decisions that favour Judges (and their power over the city) over the citizens' personal and private lives and beliefs. Regardless of what the people might think or see it as, they do sometimes try and keep some of these decisions a secret (such as mass surveillance cameras and microphones in all new blocks built after Chaos Day). As Judge Buell once put it, "Pardon me for being picky, but when have we ever cared about what the people think?" When pushed though they do rarely make minor compromises to the citizens, but these often have no real effect on the city or the peoples lives and just play off their general stupidity or greed (Chief Judge Hershey's words) to get them to tow the line; an example of these would to legalise the ownership of a single small goldfish without a licence and offering to pay citizens a token amount to behave over Christmas (the citizens saw it as an act of good will and a minor victory, it was actually cheaper then arresting and imprisoning them).

Members of the Council are appointed or dismissed by the chief judge, currently (as of April 2017) Barbara Hershey. Originally the chief judge chaired council meetings and had the right of veto, and if the offices of chief judge and deputy chief judge were both vacant, the Council chose the new chief judge from among their number. However in the 1995 story "The Decision," set in 2117, the constitution was changed, so that the chief judge is no longer a member of the Council but is now separate (it is not clear whether the chief judge's veto was preserved); however the chief judge will usually still attend meetings. The deputy chief judge (if one has been appointed) now chairs meetings, unless the chief judge is present. The appointment of a deputy chief judge must have the consent of the Council. The chief judge is now elected by up to 1,200 senior judges, instead of being chosen by the Council. (See also the Chief Judge article for additional details.)

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