Feasibility of a Cross-Jurisdiction Common Access Management Federation Agreement
Overview
This project is driven by two developments: first, there is a growing number of access management federations (AMF) being established in Europe and, indeed, in the rest of the world. Secondly, service providers (SPs) desire commonality, as far as possible, between AMF agreements. Achieving rationalisation of AMF agreements between countries will make it easier for SPs to sign up to multiple AMFs, allowing the widest access to resources for users and encouraging peering between access management federations, and confederation, rather than fragmented proliferation.
Aims and objectives
The purpose of this project is to investigate the possibility of creating a template agreement for access management federations to be used in more than one country. The study will identify to what extent a common template is possible, by comparing current agreements, analysis of the background legal context, and identifying future needs.
Project methodology
The study will, in particular, consider the situation in Finland, France, Norway, Switzerland, The Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, and the United States. To this end, JISC Legal will provide an analysis of existing federation agreements, an analysis of each jurisdiction’s legal background relevant to federation agreements, and an evaluation of the extent to which federation agreements can be rationalised in terms of structure and content by use of a common template.
Anticipated outputs and outcomes
A project website, which will include mechanisms for interested parties to input to JISC Legal’s study, and information on progress being made.
A final report evaluating the feasibility of the creation of a template agreement for access management federations. This will include:
- an analysis of the legal elements
- relevant legal differences between jurisdictions
- differences of approach between existing agreements
- an evaluation of the extent to which a common template is possible, identification of common template clauses, with an explanatory commentary and user guidance
- proposals for updating mechanisms to deal with legal and technological change
The final report of the project is now available.
Project Staff
Project Manager
Project Team