This is the [source for that method](http://grepcode.com/file/repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/repositories/releases/org.jgroups/jgroups/3.1.0.Final/org/jgroups/util/Util.java?av=f#2630).  It will:

1. Try to load from the context class loader (second argument is not considered).
2. If the second argument is not null, use the class loader that loaded the argument.
3. Try to load from the system class loader.

In general, it looks like JGroups loads classes by calling Util.loadClass, passing the name of the class and the class that represents the context for the call.  We should do the same to be consistent.  Here is the example from the  [org.jgroups.stack.Configurator](http://grepcode.com/file/repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/repositories/releases/org.jgroups/jgroups/3.1.0.Final/org/jgroups/stack/Configurator.java?av=f#406).