Checking if assertions are enabled
<p>You can enable/disable <code>assert</code> on the <a href="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19683-01/806-7930/assert-5/index.html" rel="nofollow"><code>ClassLoader</code></a>.</p>

<p>But how can you determine if they are already enabled?</p>

<p>(I want to take some code paths that perform expensive checks only if the JVM is invoked with assertions enabled.)</p>
