The New Legal Foreclosure Regime in Cyprus: Time that is not Wasted, Time where Even Pain Counts

The present Master's thesis seeks to evaluate aspects of the new laws of foreclosure and insolvency of natural persons in Cyprus following the economic adjustment programme agreed between the island and its international creditors in 2013. The controversial character of these new laws, in particular with regards to the threats they pose to the primary residence, is examined through the lens of temporality. Passing from an old legislation to a new legislation is a complex movement entangled with multiple temporalities of small and big scales, inspiring the chapters of this thesis. I argue that the novel threat of foreclosure of primary residence introduced by the new laws is juxtaposed with concretised social temporalities associated with the concept of the home in the Cypriot context. Following, and drawing on perspectives from secondary literature on time, I contend that the laws engage debtors in an intensified interval between the moment one is threatened with foreclosure and the actual event of foreclosure. Thus, I examine a plurality of temporalities, particularly through the various mechanisms introduced as protections against foreclosure. Moreover, the new legal regime interacts with different speeds and rhythms which are not strictly legal, such as democratic cycles and temporality of debt. One of the popular criticisms, that these are 'express-laws' is critically analysed in the thesis, arguing that acceleration is not an exogenous or hegemonic force but instead, acceleration in the case of Cyprus can be understood as the co-ordination of distinct temporalities such as delay and time-shortages.