diff -Nru bval-jsr303/src/main/java/org/apache/bval/jsr303/xml/ValidationMappingParser.java bval-jsr303/src/main/java/org/apache/bval/jsr303/xml-gil/ValidationMappingParser.java
--- bval-jsr303/src/main/java/org/apache/bval/jsr303/xml/ValidationMappingParser.java	2012-04-09 22:00:34.000000000 +0200
+++ bval-jsr303/src/main/java/org/apache/bval/jsr303/xml-gil/ValidationMappingParser.java	2012-05-15 16:07:59.031881223 +0200
@@ -311,8 +311,8 @@
         }
 
         List<Class<?>> groupList = new ArrayList<Class<?>>();
-        for (JAXBElement<String> groupClass : groupsType.getValue()) {
-            groupList.add(loadClass(groupClass.getValue(), defaultPackage));
+        for (String groupClass : groupsType.getValue()) {
+            groupList.add(loadClass(groupClass, defaultPackage));
         }
         return groupList.toArray(new Class[groupList.size()]);
     }
@@ -326,8 +326,8 @@
         }
 
         List<Class<? extends Payload>> payloadList = new ArrayList<Class<? extends Payload>>();
-        for (JAXBElement<String> groupClass : payloadType.getValue()) {
-            Class<?> payload = loadClass(groupClass.getValue(), defaultPackage);
+        for (String groupClass : payloadType.getValue()) {
+            Class<?> payload = loadClass(groupClass, defaultPackage);
             if (!Payload.class.isAssignableFrom(payload)) {
                 throw new ValidationException("Specified payload class " + payload.getName() +
                       " does not implement javax.validation.Payload");
@@ -343,8 +343,8 @@
         if (groupSequenceType != null) {
             Class<?>[] groupSequence = new Class<?>[groupSequenceType.getValue().size()];
             int i=0;
-            for (JAXBElement<String> groupName : groupSequenceType.getValue()) {
-                Class<?> group = loadClass(groupName.getValue(), defaultPackage);
+            for (String groupName : groupSequenceType.getValue()) {
+                Class<?> group = loadClass(groupName, defaultPackage);
                 groupSequence[i++] = group;
             }
             return groupSequence;
@@ -459,10 +459,10 @@
                  */
                 classes.addAll(findConstraintValidatorClasses(annotationClass));
             }
-            for (JAXBElement<String> validatorClassName : validatedByType.getValue()) {
+            for (String validatorClassName : validatedByType.getValue()) {
                 Class<? extends ConstraintValidator<?, ?>> validatorClass;
                 validatorClass = (Class<? extends ConstraintValidator<?, ?>>)
-                      loadClass(validatorClassName.getValue());
+                      loadClass(validatorClassName);
 
 
                 if (!ConstraintValidator.class.isAssignableFrom(validatorClass)) {
diff -Nru bval-jsr303/src/main/java/org/apache/bval/jsr303/xml/ValidationParser.java bval-jsr303/src/main/java/org/apache/bval/jsr303/xml-gil/ValidationParser.java
--- bval-jsr303/src/main/java/org/apache/bval/jsr303/xml/ValidationParser.java	2012-04-09 22:00:34.000000000 +0200
+++ bval-jsr303/src/main/java/org/apache/bval/jsr303/xml-gil/ValidationParser.java	2012-05-15 15:55:41.502822371 +0200
@@ -239,8 +239,7 @@
 
     private void applyMappingStreams(ValidationConfigType xmlConfig,
                                      ConfigurationImpl target) {
-        for (JAXBElement<String> mappingFileNameElement : xmlConfig.getConstraintMapping()) {
-            String mappingFileName = mappingFileNameElement.getValue();
+        for (String mappingFileName : xmlConfig.getConstraintMapping()) {
             if (mappingFileName.startsWith("/")) {
                 // Classloader needs a path without a starting /
                 mappingFileName = mappingFileName.substring(1);