This class is used to pass full generics type information, and avoid problems with type erasure (that basically removes most usable type references from runtime Class objects). It is based on ideas from http://gafter.blogspot.com/2006/12/super-type-tokens.html,

Usage is by sub-classing: here is one way to instantiate reference to generic type List<Integer>:

  GenericType type = new GenericType<List<Integer>>() { };

which can be passed to methods that accept GenericReference.