Public Order Principles, Philosophical Method and the International Law of Nuclear Weapons (SWP 20)

The goal of philosophical method is the construction of a comprehensive policy argument (CPA) for a public policy or legal issue. In addition to the conventional use of empirical models and their logic of investigation in the study of policy and law, CPA requires that an underlying philosophical logic of concepts be deciphered in terms of the ideas within the issue, their definition, overlap and systematic interdependence. In this working paper, I will employ a logic of concepts from the philosophical system of David Hume to provide a unique and more complete logic of legal investigation for the illumination of the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on the Legality of Nuclear Weapons.