This is a javac bug. A type variable should not "inherit" any private members. This follows from 4.4 and 4.9.

-Neal

On 1/11/07, ... wrote:
Section 4.4 describes the members of type variables and the access to
        them, including an example on page 50. Based on that description, I
        would expect an access error on the reference to E.i, but this is
        accepted by javac.
        
        Did I overlook something in the JLS? If not, is this a JLS error or
        a javac bug?
        
        class X<E extends X<E>> {
                 private static int i;
                 int f() {
                         return E.i;
                 }
        }