Hibernate3 adds the ability to pre-define filter criteria and attach those filters at both a class and a collection level. What's a "pre-defined filter criteria"? Well, it's the ability to define a limit clause very similiar to the existing "where" attribute available on the class and various collection elements. Except these filter conditions can be parameterized! The application can then make the decision at runtime whether given filters should be enabled and what their parameter values should be.