Decisionism and negative hermeneutics: Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen and the affirmation of power in the legal interpretative act

Abstract

This paper intends to reflect upon the legal interpretation theories presented by Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt. It demonstrates that, however assuming different senses of decisionism, they end up generating a negative hermeneutics. For that, the theories made by Schmitt are analised in the 1910 years, period still characterized by a neokantian focus; in the 1920's, in the crisis of Weimar; and in the 1930's, when Schmitt had accepted the national-socialism. About Kelsen, the paper discusses the two editions of Pure Theory of Law (1934 and 1960). As a conclusion, it is possible to affirm the insuficiency of the negative hermeneutics.

Legal Interpretation; Hans Kelsen; Carl Schmitt; Law's Application; Power