Nevertheless, the shift in emphasis from environmental protection to sustainability was already noticeable at the beginning of the 21st century.1 The role of indicators in the study of sustainability strengthens the relevant economic aspects.2 The classic three-dimensional concept of sustainability can also be traced in the documents on the UN Sustainable Development Goals system and the EU Sustainable Development Goals system. The three main actors of these are economic resources, natural resources and social resources. In addition to these areas, human resources have also been included in the Sustainability Indicators of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (Hun. abbr. KSH) as a Hungarian innovation. Within this, the sub-issues of demography, living conditions, health and education are examined from 4, 5, 9 and 7 aspects respectively in the indicators.3

The UN Brundtland Report (1987) is well known, according to which development is sustainable if it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations. Thus, in fact, it is necessary to think not only about the differences between economic, natural and social resources, but also about economic, environmental and social sustainability.4 Sustainability also arises in such economic and practical issues as the comparison of companies’ sustainability activities with the information provided by the Ecological, Social, Governmental framework (abbr. ESG) non-financial reports and the ESG framework (compliance rules and frameworks).5

Thinking about the ideas of a sustainable economy and a sustainable market economy is not only the privilege of liberal thinkers in Western Europe and the USA, but also a task for the civil-conservative intellectuals in Central Europe.6 However, it is not only given to economists, sociologists, political scientists, but also necessarily to legal scholars (and practitioners of law). In addition to the general problems of sustainability and law,7 domestic understanding so far has only extended to social sustainability and EU civil procedural law,8 as well as the sustainability nature of intellectual property rights.9 From a non-legal perspective, the problem of public administration and sustainability has also emerged.10

The theory of social sustainability recognises and considers as its goal the equal provision of the right of successive generations to an adequate quality of life and the fulfilment of the obligations related to this. The Sustainable Development Agenda adopted in 2015 also set the goal of eradicating poverty, ensuring fair living conditions, which aims to facilitate access to justice in the field of civil law enforcement, ensure equal and effective provision of procedural rights, and create conditions for human dignity and fair exercise of law. Meanwhile, the continuous change observed in society and the environment, changes in living conditions, the emergence of force majeure situations such as the epidemic or armed conflicts flaring up within Europe do not make the situation easier. Legal disputes do not occur in a vacuum of dogmatic-legal conceptual space, but take place in real-life. The nature of legal problems is also changing, and dispute resolution requires modern solutions. This could include the EU’s civil procedural law acquis, the scope of application of classical procedural law and alternative procedural law instruments,11 and the role of EU civil procedural law in social sustainability,12 and within that, certain social aspects, or in certain cases of legal aid provided by the state (e.g. non-payment of court costs litigation).13

Both sustainable development scientists and legal scholars who study the topic refer to such elusive concepts as the joint examination of peace, justice, and so-called ‘strong institutions.’14 But we can also find references to the utopian nature of sustainable development, or to the well-founded desire to overcome overconsumption,15 or to holistic civilisational organising principles,16 or even to planetary responsibility.17

Whether all these are pious wishes, big words (or perhaps humbugs)18 of the scientific community, or prophetic predictions, is a question for the future to decide. The feeling of ‘one step forward, two steps back’ is very real in the context of sustainability. It is in vain for scientists to raise their fingers in warning if politicians, society, and economic leaders cannot or will not see the danger, or downplay it even in light of recent events (the Covid-19 pandemic or the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict). Instead of short summaries of research, dry extracts of debates, and insignificant battles over minor issues, conducting in-depth and independent studies appear to be more productive.19 (Cf. for the conceptualization of the theoretical problem: some of Lenin's statements).20 This statement is also true in the case of sustainability.

However, it is necessary to make some preliminary remarks in this regard. The present study is one of the pillars of the theoretical foundation of the research topic ‘Sustainability and Law’, so it is possible to discuss issues related to the subject only indirectly. Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861), one of the most significant Civilists and legal Romanists, the creator of the concept of legal institution (Ger. Rechtsinstitut), found that the most prominent legal institution is the family, which he called the fundamental legal institution (Ger. Rechtsinstitution). Our starting point is that in public law and political science, the term ‘fundamental legal institution’ would belong to the state (or the public administration that fundamentally maintains it). In order to deal with the issues of sustainability and law, sustainability law / sustainable development law, and sustainable state and sustainable public administration later, the question of the origin and role of the family, marriage, private property, and the state must be examined in a broader historical perspective. This is especially justified because in certain Euro-Atlantic political circles, these social pillars are facing the most serious attacks. This is true today as it has been true at least since the Russian Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, but the roots of the problems are to be found in the great French Revolution of 1789, which brought about similar social upheaval. The last ten years have brought significant development in our country in terms of public administration and administrative science (or public administration theory). In addition to the functioning of the Faculty of Public Administration and then the Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies of the National (Ludovika) University of Public Service (Budapest), which began in 2012, past and present public administration science was also surveyed. The critical oeuvre edition series of Zoltán Magyary (1888-1945), launched in 2015,21 and the present of (primarily) Hungarian administrative science(s), in addition the Political Science (Staatslehre) Classics series (Hun. Államtudományi klasszikusok sorozat)22 and its new directions,23 as well as some emblematic figures of Hungarian public administration science before 194524 was published.

In addition to the presentation of the foreign influences on Hungarian public administration before 1945, as well as the historical and theoretical presentation of French, German, American, and Italian public administration sciences that emerged as a result of these influences,25 the modern public administration sciences in France, Germany, and the United States were also presented based on original language sources.26

Without knowledge and adequate interpretation of the social, legal, and environmental past, not only the answers but also the questions posed may be wrong from the start, especially if we fall into the error that has unfortunately penetrated legal science (and its border areas of social science), and is mainly noticeable in sociology and political science (but now also permeates historical science, including the investigation of questions closer in time), that we organise research only along the lines of achieving the desired answer to an ideologically motivated question, even against the facts and even the results of empirical research, which thus becomes a political tool instead of a guise of scientific cultivation. Fortunately, the majority of domestic researchers with a basic background in legal dogma and theoretical history resist such ideological magic tricks. The topics of family and marriage, which address fundamental questions, fit into modern administrative law through civil registry administration. Private property in public administration is an issue within the subject area of non-administrative law applied in public administration (or by public administration). Although the tasks related to maintenance, annuity and inheritance contracts were abolished for the domestic public administration after the change of regime (1991), by exercising certain specialised administrative tasks, the public administration prepares the inheritance procedure for the notary. In a broader sense, property is protected by administrative criminal proceedings (relevant substantive anti-administrative facts and, in most cases, the procedural part of the legal field), and by the law of expropriation, the procedural part of which primarily belongs to the public administration.27

Public administration and public administrative law are essential components, if not prerequisites, of the state. A state without public administration can, at most, be imagined in its disintegrating or dying state. However, it may not seem inappropriate to recall some contemporary sayings and bon mot, most likely by Géza Kilényi (1936-2016), Sándor Berényi (1930-2013), Lajos Lőrincz (1935-2010), the late ordinary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, dating back to the previous political regime (?)that called public administration “state administration”: : “In socialism, the state dies, but state administration does not.” Also, according to the memoirist, from the period 1989-1990: “The overpower of the state may decrease, but that of state administration shall never.”28 These ideas, albeit formulated in a previous system and in a special situation, still remain relevant today. At the same time, they reveal the distinctive trajectories of modern state development.