diff --git a/vendor/plugins/access_control/lib/role.rb b/vendor/plugins/access_control/lib/role.rb
index ec0258e..a6d2df0 100644
--- a/vendor/plugins/access_control/lib/role.rb
+++ b/vendor/plugins/access_control/lib/role.rb
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   def initialize(*args)
     super(*args)
+  end
+
+  def permissions
     self[:permissions] ||= []
   end
 
diff --git a/vendor/plugins/access_control/test/role_test.rb b/vendor/plugins/access_control/test/role_test.rb
index 4e1fb18..68cc4e9 100644
--- a/vendor/plugins/access_control/test/role_test.rb
+++ b/vendor/plugins/access_control/test/role_test.rb
@@ -68,4 +68,9 @@ class RoleTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
 
   end
 
+  def test_should_have_an_empty_array_as_permissions_by_default
+    role = Role.new
+    assert_equal [], role.permissions
+  end
+
 end
--
libgit2 0.21.2