Abstract: Policies that govern the rights of system assets with respect to other system assets are enforced through dynamic generation of a license at a policy engine in response to a request by an asset to exercise a right with respect to another asset. The system assets are objects within the system to which behavior-regulating policies are applied. Typical types of system assets include users, devices, information files, and processes, and many other types of assets may also be defined. Upon receiving a request to exercise a right, the policy engine obtains predefined policies that are relevant to the request, and obtains factual information for evaluating the current state of transient conditions upon which rights are contingent as expressed in the policies. Through evaluation of the policies, the policy engine generates a license that expresses rights or prohibitions of the requesting asset with respect to another specified asset.