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