You have several problems with your code: 1. You should create your `ValidationTest` object as a bean managed by Spring and not using new 2. `<aop:include name="UpdateUIMetadataInterceptor" />` should be `<aop:include name="updateUI"/>`; you can actually just stick with `<aop:aspectj-autoproxy/>` for simplicity here 3. `ProceedingJoinPoint` is not supported for before aspects, so remove it; you can use `JoinPoint` instead if you need access to arguments 4. `JsonSchemaAnnotation jsonSchemaAnnotation` parameter should be present for `validateJson` method of your aspect, as pointed out by [frant.hartm][1] [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31986565/2106575