The John Wagner Facebook Thread

[Peter Wolf]

There must be an army of lawyers working for the Justice Dept but its not clear if citzens have the right to have legal representation or if they have the right to file a case against another as none of this is really explained.

I guess as well that legislation/statutes dont exist in DreddWorld as Judges are an extension of the judiciary because as far as i understand it there is no legislation voted on by politicians and the like.

[Dandontdare]

I've always had the impression that the Judges dispense instant justice, in the manner with which we are all familiar, and the lawyers are there to dispute the basis of the arrest or sentencing after the fact.

This has always been my view - Judge 'em first and sort out any issues on appeal. We haven't seen much courtroom action, but I imagine the burden of proof is rather high and the process weighted quite heavily against the perp.

or if they have the right to file a case against another as none of this is really explained.

I'm sure there have been references to cits suing each other, winning compensation and the like, and I imagine the judges would be glad to be able to hive off a lot of trivial disputes to civil courts (or Judge Judy style vid-shows), and stay out of things (unless heads need bustin' of course!).

[Jim_Campbell]

I guess as well that legislation/statutes dont exist in DreddWorld as Judges are an extension of the judiciary because as far as i understand it there is no legislation voted on by politicians and the like.

Are you trying to say that there is no written law, in the conventional sense? Because there clearly is a body of formalized legislation which is what the Judges enforce ... there's also a civil political structure (otherwise, what is PJ Maybe the Mayor of?) and I would assume that they had some control over civil ordinances, subject to judicial oversight/approval.

Cheers

Jim

[Mike Gloady]

I'm sure there have been references to cits suing each other, winning compensation and the like, and I imagine the judges would be glad to be able to hive off a lot of trivial disputes to civil courts (or Judge Judy style vid-shows), and stay out of things (unless heads need bustin' of course!).

Judge Judy in MC-1?

I'd love that.  Easily one of my favourite shows.....

[George Dread]

Mine too Mike. Mine too. In fact my facebook status pleads for the boxsets of Judge Judy. And, i was tempted to raise the question of having a characiture of her in Dredd on John Wagner's page today. Have you noticed the difference in theme tunes recently? Is this a series differentiater? 

[Mike Gloady]

I think it might be.

Great show.  Love it.  Always have.

[Peter Wolf]

I guess as well that legislation/statutes dont exist in DreddWorld as Judges are an extension of the judiciary because as far as i understand it there is no legislation voted on by politicians and the like.

Are you trying to say that there is no written law, in the conventional sense? Because there clearly is a body of formalized legislation which is what the Judges enforce ... there's also a civil political structure (otherwise, what is PJ Maybe the Mayor of?) and I would assume that they had some control over civil ordinances, subject to judicial oversight/approval.

Cheers

Jim

No i am saying that there is written law but not legislation because Judges are enforcing the law as agents of the Justice Department which is a judicial organisation.

Its just a tecnicality because in contemporary society there are two kinds of law at work in the UK.The first type of law is Common Law which is laws that are created by the judiciary and the second is legislation/statutes [corporate/company law] that are created by political processes.

2 completely different things.


The political processes of the Justice Dept and MC1 have never been fully explained so i am just assuming that there are no legislative processes within the Justice Dept or in MC1 but i could well be wrong but thats how it looks.I also dont know much about PJ Maybe as in either he is an elected head politician or if its just a token position with no real power.If PJ Maybe is an elected head politician then there must be others......so there must be some govermental organisation that runs MC1 below the Justice Dept but they are nothing more than civil servants.

It gets more complicated the more i think about it as its one massive grey area.

[Eric Plumrose]

Judge Judy in MC-1?

Judge Judy and Executioner, as someone (Nick Frost?) once said.

It's usually the racketeers that use lawyers, so perhaps only the rich are able to afford them.

[The Legendary Shark]

John Wagner is actually our special guest in the Yap Shop tonight*


















*no he isn't, but why not drop in anyway?

[John Caliber]

I don't much care for Facebook, but there is one question I would have liked to ask John Wanger: Which Sector is the Grand Hall of Justice actually in?

Sources outside the comics say Sector 44, but in relatively recent stories, JW has inferred (indirectly) that it is sited in Sector 1. It's caused more than a few headaches for the Mega-City One gazetteer I'm writing!

[W. R. Logan]

I don't much care for Facebook, but there is one question I would have liked to ask John Wanger: Which Sector is the Grand Hall of Justice actually in?
Sources outside the comics say Sector 44, but in relatively recent stories, JW has inferred (indirectly) that it is sited in Sector 1. It's caused more than a few headaches for the Mega-City One gazetteer I'm writing!

If anyone can answer this I'm sure John would be gratefull 8-)

[radiator]

I don't much care for Facebook, but there is one question I would have liked to ask John Wanger: Which Sector is the Grand Hall of Justice actually in?
Sources outside the comics say Sector 44, but in relatively recent stories, JW has inferred (indirectly) that it is sited in Sector 1. It's caused more than a few headaches for the Mega-City One gazetteer I'm writing!

Fair enough if that's what you enjoy, but personally, as with the lawyer thing, I'm glad that these things aren't clearly defined - I think pinning all this down definitively only limits the writers. I like that, in Wagner's scripts at least, the specific geography of the city and much of the world outside is all a bit murky and Wagner is free to introduce other sectors or nations or Cursed Earth settlements or citystates or whatever without contradicting what has previously mapped out.

[Dandontdare]

I don't much care for Facebook, but there is one question I would have liked to ask John Wanger: Which Sector is the Grand Hall of Justice actually in?

Sources outside the comics say Sector 44, but in relatively recent stories, JW has inferred (indirectly) that it is sited in Sector 1. It's caused more than a few headaches for the Mega-City One gazetteer I'm writing!

In Origins, which is fairly recent and seems to be pretty definitive as regards tying up continuity issues, the muties in the prologue are directed to sector 1.

PS - "John Wanger" - excellent typo, and one I'm sure he'd approve of!

[SuperSurfer]

Never gave this much thought but I always reckoned that lawyers in MC1 were pretty much useless as they are allowed to exist to give an illusion of some sort of working legal system as we know it, but in reality have little effect as Justice Department runs the show.

As I've mentioned before, I would like to have the disappearance of the police in MC1 explained rather than their previous existence being ignored.

[The Cosh]

Lawyers still used in big money civil cases and the likes. Think of the number of mobsters who've had an army of lawyers making sure they stay on the right side of the law.

Also, Block Court!