In accordance with XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0 (http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt), the `xsl:import` element is only allowed as a top-level element. The `xsl:import` element children must precede all other element children of an `xsl:stylesheet` element, including any `xsl:include` element children.

The JDK implementation has previously allowed the `xsl:import` element erroneously placed anywhere in a stylesheet. This issue has been fixed in the JDK 9 release. The JDK implementation now rejects any XSLT stylesheets with erroneously placed import elements.