This isn't an answer to the tagline question, but it is an answer to the problems mentioned in the body of the question. Instead of using @Before or @After, look into using @org.junit.Rule because it gives you more flexibility. ExternalResource (as of 4.7) is the rule you will be most interested in if you are managing connections. Also, If you want guaranteed execution order of your rules use a RuleChain (as of 4.10). I believe all of these were available when this question was asked. Code example below is copied from ExternalResource's javadocs.
public static class UsesExternalResource {
Server myServer= new Server();
@Rule
public ExternalResource resource= new ExternalResource() {
@Override
protected void before() throws Throwable {
myServer.connect();
};
@Override
protected void after() {
myServer.disconnect();
};
};
@Test
public void testFoo() {
new Client().run(myServer);
}
}