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The pre sent ar tic le con cen tra tes on the ac qu i si ti on of ow ner ship (and in so me re spects: use) of agri cul tu ral and fo re stry lands, espe ci ally as to the cross-bor der aspects. One of the hypot he ses of the ar tic le is that the abo ve menti o ned is sue is a to pi cal qu e sti on al most all aro und the world. Ne vert he less, the ar tic le fo cu ses on a Eu ro pean aspect of the cross-bor der ac qu i si ti on, na mely the new land law ru les of the EU's Mem ber Sta tes ha ving jo i ned the Eu ro pean Union in 2004 and 2007. In 2014 and 2015, the Eu ro pean Com mis sion had as ses sed the land law of the se Mem ber Sta tes (i.e. Bul ga ria, Hun gary, La tvia, Lit hu a nia, Slo va kia) and ini ti a ted in frin ge ment pro ce du res aga inst the se co un tri es at the Co u rt of Justi ce of the Eu ro pean Union. Be si des the re gu la tion of the se new Mem ber Sta tes of the EU, the pre sent ar tic le de als with the le gi sla tion of ot her Mem ber Sta tes as well as the pro vi si ons of non-EU sta tes. The ar tic le gi ves sub stan tial con si de ra tion to phe no me na such as so ve re ignty, land-hun ger or soil de gra da tion which may exer ci se sig ni fi cant in flu en ce on the land law of a sta te.

The aim of this study is to show where and how water-related legal regulations appear in the legal system of the European Union and what are the current issues that most affect the European Union's water legislation. Although we strive for a holistic approach in the present study, however, because of the complex and difficult nature of the issue, our attempt to present the above questions may only be subjective and partial. In the first half of the study, we try to show what is meant by ʻwater lawʼ in the European Union. In the second, larger half of the study, we list some of the water-related regulatory concepts and then try to show which parts of the European Union legislation are covered by these regulatory concepts. As we will see, what the European Union today defines as water law does not cover all essential regulatory concepts of water. In other words, important water-related regulations (these are simply called regulatory concepts of water) are in many cases outside the European Union's water law.

The present study is inspired by the tenth anniversary of the new Hungarian Constitution, known under the name of Fundamental Law, which was adopted in 2011 and entered into force in 2012. In this study we analyse the ten-year old Fundamental Law and its constitutional practice with regard to the important challenges and tasks of the 21st century, namely how the protection of the interests of future generations and the environment are reflected in it. Particularly important elements of the study are (a) the institutional guarantees of the relevant provisions, such as the provisions relating to the Constitutional Court and the Advocate of Future Generations, (b) the concept of GMO-free agriculture in the Fundamental Law, (c) the theses of the Constitutional Court practice on the prohibition of retrogression and the precautionary principle, (d) new interpretative frameworks and possibilities arising from other values of the Fundamental Law, such as the provisions on Christian culture, (e) the open questions of interpretation of the Fundamental Law on waste and the environmental liability regime, (f) the priority protection of natural resources, which are the common heritage of the nation, and last but not least (g) the particularly forward-looking integration of the interests of future generations in the rules on public finances and national assets.

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