13. A computer-implemented method for performing access control to at least one information resource associated with at least one application within a computer network, the computer-implemented method comprising: receiving identified application relevant context sources; receiving specified constraints, specified by means of a constraint specification console, the constraints being based on context information that are provided by the identified relevant context sources; translating the specified constraints into rules understandable by an appropriate rule engine; forwarding the translated constraints to the rule engine so that the translated constraints get stored in the rule engine as a set of rules; translating, at runtime by means of a rule engine adaptor, context information originating from the identified relevant context sources into facts that can be interpreted and appropriately correlated with the respective rules by and stored in the rule engine; and querying such facts, in case of need, by means of an application specific constraint enforcement point from the rule engine via the rule engine adaptor so as to enable the constraint enforcement point to make appropriate enforcement decisions.
13. A computer-implemented method for performing access control to at least one information resource associated with at least one application within a computer network, the computer-implemented method comprising: receiving identified application relevant context sources; receiving specified constraints, specified by means of a constraint specification console, the constraints being based on context information that are provided by the identified relevant context sources; translating the specified constraints into rules understandable by an appropriate rule engine; forwarding the translated constraints to the rule engine so that the translated constraints get stored in the rule engine as a set of rules; translating, at runtime by means of a rule engine adaptor, context information originating from the identified relevant context sources into facts that can be interpreted and appropriately correlated with the respective rules by and stored in the rule engine; and querying such facts, in case of need, by means of an application specific constraint enforcement point from the rule engine via the rule engine adaptor so as to enable the constraint enforcement point to make appropriate enforcement decisions. 14. A computer-implemented method according to claim 13 , wherein the rule engine is chosen as an off-the-shelf component that is capable of handling facts and applying inference rules on those facts and used in such a way that context information originating from the identified relevant context sources is represented as facts and the specified constraints are expressed as rules within the rule engine.