Described herein are techniques for time limited lock ownership. In one embodiment, in response to receiving a request for a lock on a shared resource, the lock is granted and a lock lease period associated with the lock is established. Then, in response to determining that the lock lease period has expired, one or more lock lease expiration procedures are performed. In many cases, the time limited lock ownership may prevent system hanging, timely detect system deadlocks, and/or improve overall performance of the database.