The specification for the interface java.rmi.server.RMIFailureHandler and the methods "setFailureHandler" and "getFailureHandler" of the class java.rmi.server.RMISocketFactory say that the (globally) set RMIFailureHandler instance, if any, gets invoked when server socket creation fails. Since J2SE 1.2, that has not been the actual behavior-- in fact, the RMIFailureHandler gets invoked when a server socket accept() invocation fails. The actual behavior (since 1.2) should be specified correctly.