What exactly does “pass by reference” mean?

Question

And who has the authority to decide?

Edit: Apparently I haven\'t succeeded in formulating my question well.
I am not asking how Java\'s

Answer 1

Java doesn't pass by reference. You are always passing a copy/by value. However if you pass an object then you will get a copy of the reference. So you can directly edit the object, however if you overwrite your local reference then the original object reference won't be overriden.