System and method for inheriting access control rules

A system and method are provided for an information management system (IMS) having an underlying relational database system (RDBMS) that allows an item to be associated with plural containers, and one of the containers is designated as the item's primary container. Inheritance of the primary container's access control rules can be activated, and when it is, the container's access control rules are automatically used to access the item. Otherwise, the item's access control rules are used. The container's rules can be propagated through many levels of containers/items.