diff --git a/src/Spring/Spring.Core/Context/Support/ContextHandler.cs b/src/Spring/Spring.Core/Context/Support/ContextHandler.cs
index 99a3701f..0c21fed1 100644
--- a/src/Spring/Spring.Core/Context/Support/ContextHandler.cs
+++ b/src/Spring/Spring.Core/Context/Support/ContextHandler.cs
@@ -288,7 +288,7 @@ namespace Spring.Context.Support
 	        	// finally create the context instance
 				context = InstantiateContext(parentContext, configContext, contextName, contextType, caseSensitive, resources);
                 // and register with global context registry
-                if (AutoRegisterWithContextRegistry)
+                if (AutoRegisterWithContextRegistry && !ContextRegistry.IsContextRegistered(context.Name))
                 {
                     ContextRegistry.RegisterContext(context);                    
                 }
diff --git a/src/Spring/Spring.Web/Context/Support/WebContextHandler.cs b/src/Spring/Spring.Web/Context/Support/WebContextHandler.cs
index 3a696651..a899d031 100644
--- a/src/Spring/Spring.Web/Context/Support/WebContextHandler.cs
+++ b/src/Spring/Spring.Web/Context/Support/WebContextHandler.cs
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ namespace Spring.Context.Support
         /// </summary>
         protected override string GetContextName(object configContext, XmlElement contextElement)
         {
-            string contextName = ((HttpConfigurationContext) configContext).VirtualPath;
+            string contextName = GetVirtualPath(configContext);
             // NET 2.0 returns "/" for root path
             if (contextName == "/")
             {
@@ -104,8 +104,6 @@ namespace Spring.Context.Support
                                                                   string contextName, Type contextType,
                                                                   bool caseSensitive, string[] resources)
         {
-            HttpConfigurationContext httpConfigurationContext = (HttpConfigurationContext) configContext;
-
             // ASP.NET may scavenge it's configuration section cache if memory usage is too high.
             // Thus a handler may be called more than once for the same context.
             // Return registered context in this case.
@@ -122,7 +120,7 @@ namespace Spring.Context.Support
             }
 
             // for rewriting path during context instantiation
-            string vpath = httpConfigurationContext.VirtualPath;
+            string vpath = GetVirtualPath(configContext);
             if (!vpath.EndsWith("/")) vpath = vpath + "/";
             using (new HttpContextSwitch(vpath))
             {
@@ -130,5 +128,15 @@ namespace Spring.Context.Support
                     base.InstantiateContext(parent, configContext, contextName, contextType, caseSensitive, resources);
             }
         }
+
+        private String GetVirtualPath(Object configContext)
+        {
+            HttpConfigurationContext httpConfigurationContext = (HttpConfigurationContext)configContext;
+            if (httpConfigurationContext != null)
+            {
+                return httpConfigurationContext.VirtualPath;
+            }
+            return String.Empty;
+        }
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Context/Support/WebContextHandlerTests.cs b/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Context/Support/WebContextHandlerTests.cs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0c1b00a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Context/Support/WebContextHandlerTests.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+#region License
+
+/*
+ * Copyright © 2002-2010 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+#endregion
+
+#region Imports
+
+using System;
+using System.IO;
+using System.Xml;
+using NUnit.Framework;
+using Spring.Util;
+
+#endregion
+
+
+
+namespace Spring.Context.Support
+{
+    public class WebContextHandlerTests
+    {
+        [SetUp]
+        public void SetUp()
+        {
+            ContextRegistry.Clear();
+        }
+
+        [TearDown]
+        public void TearDown()
+        {
+            ContextRegistry.Clear();
+        }
+
+        [Test]
+        public void should_return_registered_context_with_ContextRegistry()
+        {
+			const string xmlData =
+				@"<context type='Spring.Context.Support.XmlApplicationContext, Spring.Core'>
+	                <resource uri='assembly://Spring.Web.Tests/Spring.Context.Support/WebContextHandlerTests.xml'/>
+                 </context>";
+            GenericApplicationContext expectedContext = new GenericApplicationContext(null, false, null);
+            ContextRegistry.RegisterContext(expectedContext);
+            WebContextHandler webContextHandler = new WebContextHandler();
+            
+            Object actualContext = webContextHandler.Create(null, null, CreateConfigurationElement(xmlData));
+
+            Assert.AreSame(expectedContext, actualContext);
+        }
+
+        private XmlNode CreateConfigurationElement(string xmlData)
+        {
+            XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
+            xmlDoc.Load(new StringReader(xmlData));
+            return xmlDoc.DocumentElement;
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Context/Support/WebContextHandlerTests.xml b/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Context/Support/WebContextHandlerTests.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e0045462
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Context/Support/WebContextHandlerTests.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
+<objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.net http://www.springframework.net/xsd/spring-objects.xsd"
+>
+<!-- deliberately empty -->
+</objects>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Spring.Web.Tests.2010.csproj b/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Spring.Web.Tests.2010.csproj
index bbdd070b..8412f186 100644
--- a/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Spring.Web.Tests.2010.csproj
+++ b/test/Spring/Spring.Web.Tests/Spring.Web.Tests.2010.csproj
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@
     <Compile Include="Context\Support\HttpApplicationConfigurerTests.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Context\Support\WebApplicationContextArgsTests.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Context\Support\WebApplicationContextTests.cs" />
+    <Compile Include="Context\Support\WebContextHandlerTests.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Core\IO\WebResourceTests.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Data\Spring\Objects\Factory\Support\TestForm.aspx.cs">
       <DependentUpon>TestForm.aspx</DependentUpon>
@@ -164,6 +165,7 @@
   <ItemGroup>
     <EmbeddedResource Include="Context\Support\HttpApplicationConfigurerTests.xml" />
     <EmbeddedResource Include="Context\Support\HttpApplicationConfigurerMergablePropertiesTests.xml" />
+    <EmbeddedResource Include="Context\Support\WebContextHandlerTests.xml" />
     <Content Include="Data\Spring\Context\Support\WebApplicationContextTests\Dummy.aspx" />
     <Content Include="Data\Spring\Objects\Factory\Support\TestForm.aspx" />
     <Content Include="Data\Spring\Web\Support\LocalResourceManagerTests\WithoutResources.aspx" />