Finally, after years of debate in the House of Representatives, consensual express divorces were approved and the modernisation of family law was finally put into practice. The institution of the family is finally being strengthened in this way through a modernised legislative framework with faster and more humane procedures.
With the adoption of the bills that have been passed and will be discussed below, equality between parents, equal sharing of the burden between them and the speedy adjudication of cases is achieved.
The main changes that have occurred in Family Law are the following:
- Family Courts will sit in a single-member composition instead of three-member in divorce cases, as the relevant amendment to the Constitution. The scope of the Family Courts’ powers has also been extended so that they can hear any family dispute, regardless of whether the parties belong to the Greek Orthodox Church or to a religious group.
- The same judge will hear all cases which are brought at any time between the same parties before the same Family Court. This is in anticipation of the fact that the same Judge will be familiar will also be able to hear all applications involving the parties.
- The previously mentioned consensual divorce is now introduced, now meeting modern requirements, provided that the marriage has lasted six months and the spouses declare before the court that they consent to the dissolution of the marriage. It is provided that where there are minor children, the Court shall issue a decree for the dissolution of the marriage if the spouses have lodged with the Court a copy of the court decision regulating the custody or contact of the children or an application requesting the Court to issue a decree on these matters.
- Another important change is that the time of separation required to create the irrebuttable presumption of breakdown of marriage is reduced from four years to two.
- With the amendment to the Attempted Conciliation and Spiritual Dissolution of Marriage Act, no notification is required to be given to the Bishop prior to the registration of a suit for dissolution of marriage, in the case where the alleged ground for dissolution of marriage is the severe breakdown of relations between the spouses due to violence in the family, provided that a formal complaint has been lodged with the Cyprus Police or the Social Welfare Services of the Ministry of Social Welfare and a certificate to that effect has been issued by them.
- The time period from the notification of intention to register a petition for dissolution of marriage to the registration of the petition is now reduced from three months, where it was previously, to six weeks.
- The possibility of sending the notification to the Bishop electronically is also provided for, as well as the modification of the notification of the result of the conciliation, so that in case of failure of the conciliation the Bishop gives the spouses a certificate indicating the spiritual dissolution of the marriage.
- Jurisdiction is extended to a dispute involving property of spouses and neither of the parties to the dispute resides in the Republic and the Court of the province in which the property in dispute is located becomes the competent Court for the whole dispute.
- Provision is now made for the trial to be conducted – in whole or in part – in camera, at the request of the parties or on the Court’s own initiative in the event that a child appears as a witness, in order to safeguard the privacy of the parties and the child and to protect the child’s best interests.
- The Family Court may, for reasons of leniency and in view of the particular circumstances of each of the spouses and the best interests of the children, extend the grant of the exclusive use of part or all of the family home even after the dissolution of the marriage for a period not exceeding 2 years after the dissolution.
- It is now prohibited for any person to marry a person who has not reached the age of 18 years, contrary to the previous provision of Article 15 of the Marriage Law which has been repealed and which laid down conditions for marriage between minors or between a minor and an adult, thus bringing Cypriot legislation in this respect in line with European and international standards.
- A provision has been introduced stating that for annullable marriages the consent or recognition of the marriage shall be given before a Court of Justice, while the timing of the effects of the annulment or declaration of nullity of an annullable and void marriage is differentiated.
