The present dissertation has for objective to establish criteria for the balancing in the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Law using the contribution of the garantist theory to the Brazilian debate on fundamental rights. These criteria are guided for the prevalence of basic rights and especially the individual freedoms over the repressive public interest. The use of the balancing technique, for implying in a subjective and valorative judgment of the law, brings the risk of a jurisdictional performance that threatens conquests as the Rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights. It is intended to establish a balancing reserve of these guarantees by the affirmation of edges or limits for this performance of the Judiciary Power. These criteria are established using the rationality (that must be present in the justification of the State, of the law and of the jurisdictional performance) anda the garantist theory.