One of our main goals was to determine whether and how law (including legislation, codification, major branches and relevant areas of law) can serve as a tool for maintaining a sustainable state and society. In this regard, not only the most significant works on foreign and domestic administrative law,4 but also the old and new international and domestic summaries of environmental law,5 as well as the works with a strong link to our topic6 have been found relevant in our research.

State and society are complex phenomena, governed by interests and megatrends.Society is examined and described by a variety of scientific disciplines, including sociology, political theory, economic sciences, environmental sciences, as well as legal studies (the science of law). However, law differs from descriptive social sciences in that it constitutes prescriptive social reality. Prescriptive law, which establishes standards for citizens, companies or other organisations with or without legal personality, prescribes, prohibits, permits or rewards certain actions under its normative provisions, and may also sanction non-action (omission); issues that are not subject to the law fall under the private autonomy of citizens. Nevertheless, legal regulation in the context of sustainability is not a simple ‘social needs assessment,’ but a normative guidance based on complex legal reeasoning, which may eventually lead to social synthesis. In addition, from the perspective of the state, a theoretical hypothesis needs to be formulatedconcerning its position within jurisprudence. Friedrich Carl von Savigny, one of the most significant scholars of Civil Law and Roman Law, created the concept of the legal institution (Ger. Rechtsinstitut; Fr. institut juridique). He regarded the family as the most significant legal institution, which he called ‘fundamental legal institution’ (Ger. Rechtsinstitution; Fr. les institutions juridiques). Obviously, from the perspective of public law, the state (or the administrative structures maintaining it) would have the honourable title of ‘fundamental legal institution.’

It is true from the perspective of administrative law that any legal action can be taken as prescribed by administrative rules. Due to the composition of the research team, our research has focused primarily on administrative law, while due to the nature of the question, various areas of environmental law and all areas of law that are relevant to ensuring sustainability must be considered.