Chaining Spring CookieLocaleResolver and AcceptHeaderLocaleResolver
It looks like CookieLocaleResolver does exactly what you want as long as you don't set its defaultLocale.
If you want something different (for example, fallback to defaultLocale when neither cookie nor Accept header was found), you can override its determineDefaultLocale() accordingly.
Example cookie locale resolver that fallback first to Accept-Language header and only then to defaultLocale:
public class CookieThenAcceptHeaderLocaleResolver extends CookieLocaleResolver { @Override protected Locale determineDefaultLocale(HttpServletRequest request) { String acceptLanguage = request.getHeader("Accept-Language"); if (acceptLanguage == null || acceptLanguage.trim().isEmpty()) { return super.determineDefaultLocale(request); } return request.getLocale(); }}