The new Chief Justice of Australia is fond of inserting Judge Dredd into his speeches. The good news is, he doesn’t actually want to emulate the dystopian enforcer. The bad news is, he’s presenting the movie version, starring Sylvester Stallone. New Chief Justice Robert French, a self-confessed science fiction fan, tells the Sydney Morning Herald about his recent speech where he inserted clips of the Judge Dredd movie:
I was quoting Montesquieu about separation of powers and how when you combine the functions of judge and executive, you get a tyrant. And I suggested here’s a Hollywood picture of what this looks like and it’s Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd saying ‘I am the law,’ ” he says in chambers on the ninth floor of the High Court building in Canberra. “In fact what that film was about was some future in which you have combined executive and judicial functions. You’ve got policemen riding around arresting people, trying them, punishing them and then saying ‘Court adjourned’ and roaring off on their levitating Harley Davidson. It makes the point.”
