A system for identifying principals within a computing environment is disclosed. The system includes principal objects containing identity claims. The principal objects are used by computer processes within the environment to perform tasks related to the association of principals to activated resource objects. Exemplary principals include individuals, a group of individuals, organizations and computer modules and devices. Each identity claim uniquely identifies a specific principal within a particular scheme. To accomplish this, each identity claim includes an assertion that specifies an identification string unique to a principal within the associated scheme. Exemplary schemes for an individual include email accounts, telephone numbers, credit card account numbers and social security numbers. Thus, exemplary identification strings for an individual are specific email addresses, specific telephone numbers, etc. Exemplary schemes for a group of individuals and organizations include telephone numbers and web page addresses. The system also determines whether two principal objects conflict, thereby resulting in an identity fault.