Subclass of JUnit 4 annotation-based test won't be properly recognized as a JUnit test unless it contains at least one @Test annotated method, hence the Run test option is not available. Consider the following example: public class AbstractRepositoryTest { private Repository repository; protected AbstractRepositoryTest(Repository repository){ this.repository = repository; } @Test public void testStore() { ..... } } and the subclass: public class MyRepositoryTest extends AbstractRepositoryTest { public MyRepositoryTest() { super(new MyRepository()); } } This is a very useful technique for verifying the same contract for different implementations. I do not want to add test-methods in the subclass. but if I do, the run test option is available and all the tests are executed properly.