Since the collapse in the 1960s of the bi-communal structures of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC), the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots have been living in virtually separate legal environments. To this day, the Greek Cypriot community has been functioning within the RoC structures but without the participation of the Turkish Cypriot community, while the latter have gone on to establish their own administrative structures. Until 1974, the RoC constitution and legislation of the pre-1964 era plus new rules and laws made by the de facto Turkish Cypriot administration of that period applied within the Turkish Cypriot community. In the post-1974 period, the Turkish Cypriot administration evolved to eventually become the de facto state in northern Cyprus (the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, TRNC, which is internationally unrecognized, except by Turkey). Because of this situation there have come to operate two separate legal systems in Cyprus.
In this legal part of the project, we aim to look at how property relations are governed in the northern and southern parts of Cyprus. We concentrate particularly on the way in which the Cyprus conflict has impinged on the development of the two sides’ property regimes. Another issue of focus is the legislation that concerns the socio-economic rights and interests of displaced persons/refugees in various ways.