Requiring that Assertions are Enabled

Programmers of certain critical systems might wish to ensure that assertions are not disabled in the field. Here is an idiom that prevents a class from being loaded if assertions have been disabled for that class:

  static {
        boolean assertsEnabled = false;
        assert assertsEnabled = true; // Intentional side effect!!!
        if (!assertsEnabled)
            throw new RuntimeException("Asserts must be enabled!!!");
    }