1. What's the counterpart/equivalent in Java?
2. Reference: http://www.cnblogs.com/artech/archive/2007/03/05/664825.html
3. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_Domain
An application domain is a mechanism (similar to a process in an operating system) used within a Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) to isolate executed software applications from one another so that they do not affect each other. Each application domain has its own virtual address space which scopes the resources for the application domain using that address space.