This article presents an analysis the concepts of costs of rights, resource limitation and the "under reserve of the possibilities" clause are featured in the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court case-law. By analyzing Brazilian Supreme Court's decisions, my aim is to verify, firstly, in which subjects these themes appear more frequently. Secondly, I intend to assess how this court deals with the referred themes in its case law and what are the criteria applied. finally, I attempt to examine if the judges decision making process takes into consideration economic and distributive consequences. The survey on court decisions was based on three categories of legal discussions: right to health, right to education, and federal intervention for the non-payment of judicial debts. Initially, I examine the treatment received by the concepts of costs of rights, resource limitation and the "under reserve of the possibilities" clause in each category. And, subsequently, I compare the results obtained in order to highlight their differences.
right to health; right to education; federal intervention; brazilian supreme court; scarcity of resources; under reserve of