We question Carl Schmitt’s theory of “Grossraum”. How is this theory of the international balance of power a properly “legal” theory? And is it properly a theory of “balance”? We confront the paradox that the text in which Schmitt produced a theory of political measure had also the function of justifying the policy of limitless expansion of the Third Reich. We relate this theory’s ambiguities with Schmitt’s specific position in the science of Law : his simultaneous rejection of normativism and empiricism, which puts him aside both from legal scholars and from “international relations” theorists.