Embodiments of a system and method for hierarchically organizing rules and for evaluating and executing the hierarchy of rules. Each rule in the hierarchy of rules may include a precondition and an action to be executed if the precondition is met. When evaluating and executing the rules, if a precondition of a rule in the hierarchy is not met, then the action of the rule is not executed. Further, rules that descend from the rule in the hierarchy of rules are precluded from evaluation and execution. In one embodiment, modification of the hierarchy of rules may be performed without modification to an application using the hierarchy of rules.