comparison with Integer.MIN_VALUE behaves incorrectly

Comparisons with Integer.MAX_VALUE work correctly; comparisons with Integer.MIN_VALUE do not. Consider:

println "8 < MAX_VALUE direct: " + (8 < Integer.MAX_VALUE)
hi = Integer.MAX_VALUE
println "8 < MAX_VALUE indirect: " + (8 < hi)

println "8 > MIN_VALUE direct: " + (8 > Integer.MIN_VALUE)
hi = Integer.MIN_VALUE
println "8 > MIN_VALUE indirect: " + (8 > hi)

The output is:

8 < MAX_VALUE direct: true
8 < MAX_VALUE indirect: true
8 > MIN_VALUE direct: false
8 > MIN_VALUE indirect: false

(Note: there's nothing special about the value '8'...