Set fields of derived class in base class constructor via reflection?

Question

Does the Java Language Specification explicitly allow setting of fields of a derived class from within the base class' constructor via reflection? The following test case runs green, but I would really like to know if this Java code is compatible among different VM implementations.
Many thanks for your feedback!
Norman
public class DerivedClassReflectionWorksInBaseClassConstructorTest extends TestCase {
abstract static class A {
    A() {
        try {
            getClass().getDeclaredField("x").setInt(this, 42);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
static class B extends A {
    int x;
    B() {
    B(int x) {
        this.x = x;
public void testThatItWorks() {
    assertEquals(42, new B().x);
    assertEquals(99, new B(99).x);
}

Answer 1

why not just put a method in the superclass that the subclasses can call to initialize the subclass member variable?In derived classes (which are plug-ins), clients can use a field annotation which provides some parameter metadata such as validators and the default value. The framework must set the default value of fields, before the class' initializer or constructors are called. If the framework would do this after derived class' initializer or constructors are called, they would be overwritten:
Framework:
public abstract class Operator {
    public abstract void initialize();
}Plug-In:
public class SomeOperator extends Operator {
    @Parameter(defaultValue="42", interval="[0,100)")
    double threshold;
    @Parameter(defaultValue="C", valueSet="A,B,C")
    String mode;
    public void setThreshold(double threshold) {this.threshold = threshold;}
    public void setMode(String mode) {this.mode = mode;}
    // called by the framework after default values have been set
    public void initialize() {
}On the other hand, the default values and other metadata are also used to create GUIs and XML I/O for the derived operator class, without having it instantiated. So we cannot use the initial instance field values for that, because we don't have an instance.