Judge Joe Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science-fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running. Dredd is a law-enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury, and executioner. So great is the character's reputation that his name is sometimes invoked over similar issues to those explored by the comic series, such as the police state, authoritarianism, and the rule of law.
