As mentioned in duscusion: WEB-INF is not really a part of class path. If you use a common template such as maven, use src/main/resources or src/test/resources to place the app-context.xml into. Then you can use 'classpath:'.
Place your config file into src/main/resources/app-context.xml and use code
@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration(locations = "classpath:app-context.xml")
public class PersonControllerTest {
...
}
or you can make yout test context with different configuration of beans.
Place your config file into src/test/resources/test-app-context.xml and use code
@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration(locations = "classpath:test-app-context.xml")
public class PersonControllerTest {
...
}