Because it is the “system” context, the Java Card RE context has a special privilege. It can invoke a method of any object on the card. For example, assume that object X is owned by applet A. Normally, only the context of A can access the fields and methods of X. But the Java Card RE context is allowed to invoke any of the methods of X. During such an invocation, a context switch occurs from the Java Card RE context to the context of the applet that owns X.

Again, because it is the “system” context, the Java Card RE context can access fields and components of any object on the card including CLEAR_ON_DESELECT transient objects owned by the currently selected applet.

Note - The Java Card RE can access both methods and fields of X. Method access is the mechanism by which the Java Card RE enters the context of an applet. Although the Java Card RE could invoke any method through the firewall, it shall only invoke the select, process, deselect, and getShareableInterfaceObject (see Section 6.2.7.1, Applet.getShareableInterfaceObject(AID, byte) Method) methods defined in the Applet class, and methods on the objects passed to the API as parameters.

The Java Card RE context is the currently active context when the VM begins running after a card reset. The Java Card RE context is the “root” context and is always either the currently active context or the bottom context saved on the stack.