  We study the mechanisms of the non properness of the action of the group of
diffeomorphisms on the space of Lorentzian metrics of a compact manifold. In
particular, we prove that nonproperness entails the presence of lightlike
geodesic foliations of codimension 1. On the 2-torus, we prove that a metric
with constant curvature along one of its lightlike foliation is actually flat.
This allows us to show that the restriction of the action to the set of
non-flat metrics is proper and that on the set of flat metrics of volume 1 the
action is ergodic. Finally, we show that, contrarily to the Riemannian case,
the space of metrics without isometries is not always open.
