2.16. Can tests in different directories have the same name?

Yes. When a test is run by the harness, a special classloader is used so that the classpath is effectively set to include just the directory containing the test, plus the standard system classes. Thus name clashes between tests in different directories are not a problem.

An alternative approach would be to associate a different package with each test directory. This is done, for example, in the JCK test suite. The difficulty with this idea is that in order to debug a test (under dbx or workshop or jdb or whatever) you must set up your classpath in just the right way. This makes it difficult to diagnose bugs that are reported against specific tests.