Council of Five

The Council of Five is a fictional legislature and court in the Judge Dredd comic strip appearing in 2000 AD. It first appeared in 2000 AD prog 86 (1978).

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.^[1]

Members of the Council are appointed or dismissed by the chief judge,^[2] currently Dan Francisco.^[3] Until 2117 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 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 may still attend meetings.^[4] The deputy chief judge now chairs meetings, unless the chief judge is present.^[5] The appointment of a deputy chief judge must have the consent of the Council.^[6] The chief judge is now elected by 1,200 senior judges, instead of being chosen by the Council.^[7] (See also the Chief Judge article for additional details.)

The Council was created by Judge Goodman when he became chief judge in 2057, initially as a guiding committee.^[8] In 2112, Chief Judge McGruder suspended the Council and ruled alone.^[9] The Council was reinstated in 2116 by her successor, Judge Volt.^[10]

Judge Dredd himself always declined a seat on the Council for most of his career, although he sat temporarily in a vacant seat for the trial of Judge Edgar in 2122, to make up a quorum.^[11] However in 2132 he finally consented to a permanent appointment.^[12]

As of 2011 (or 2133 in the comic), the current members are Judges Dredd, Niles, Buell, Stalker and Vass.^[13]

Lists of Members of Council of Five since 2101

Alphabetical

Chronological

Statistics

The following relates only to those individuals listed above (i.e. post-2101):

• Violent deaths: Of the 28 ex-councillors on the above lists, 11 were removed from the Council by violent death. Three of those were killed by the Dark Judges (Grimlet, Herriman and Silver). Four were killed during the Apocalypse War. Their average term of office was just under 3 years, compared with nearly 6 years among ex-councillors overall.
• Terms of office: The longest term served on the Council (since 2101) was 15 years, by Judge Niles. The shortest term was one day, an ad hoc temporary appointment served by Dredd to fill the seat left vacant when Shenker stepped down. If that is not counted, then the next shortest terms are those of Benedetto, Rolf and Sherman, who only served for a few weeks each.
• Chief judges: Four councillors became chief judge (McGruder, Silver, Hershey and Sinfield). Two others joined the Council ex officio because they had become chief judge (Griffin and Volt).
• Backgrounds: Eight councillors were street judges at the time of their elevation to the Council (including Volt and Herriman). The Academy of Law provided four (Griffin, Silver and Pepper were tutors before they became chief and deputy chief judges). Ten were heads of their divisions: the SJS, Psi Division and Tek Division providing three judges each, and Accounts one. (The backgrounds of eight members are not known.)

Other members

• Judge Goodman, founder of the Council.^[14]
• Judge Cal, chief judge between Goodman and Griffin.^[15]
• Judge Solomon, one of the original members of the Council (mid 21st century) and Goodman's predecessor as chief judge (2051–2057).^[16]
• Judges Judd, Arlow, Johanssen and Lowther, former members of the Council during the Atomic Wars of 2070 (with Solomon).^[17]

Virgin novels

Although Chief Judge McGruder abolished the Council of Five at the beginning of her second term of office,^[9] some of the Judge Dredd novels published by Virgin Books (1993–1995) still featured the Council during this period. To reconcile this apparent discrepancy, one of the books stated that the Council existed in a purely advisory capacity, with no executive power, and only sat intermittently, as and when required. It consisted of McGruder, Shenker, Hershey, and two others. The identities of the fourth and fifth members varied from book to book, as these characters were frequently killed off. (Since the books were written by four different authors, they were not always consistent with each other, and one book reprised a character a year after he had been killed off in another book.) None of these characters ever appeared in the comics.

References

• References used for lists: 2000 AD #182, 201, 270, 455, 457, 551, 668, 706, 734, 915, 957, 1178, 1179, 1271, 1595, 1633, 1649, 1667, 1674, 1678, 1689, 1693, 1700; Judge Dredd Megazine vol. 3 #40, 53.