Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to access control and provide a method, system and computer program product for access control and entitlement determination for hierarchically organized content. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for access control and entitlement determination for hierarchically organized content can be provided. The method can include selecting a node in hierarchically organized content, inferring entitlements for direct descendants of the selected node based upon expressly conferred permissive access rights amongst ancestors and descendants of the selected node and expressly conferred impermissive rights amongst descendants of the selected node. Finally, the method can include applying the inferred entitlements in a view to the hierarchically organized content.