NullPointerException in SOAPHeaderElement(Element e)

[Marcello Marangio]

Hi all.
I am trying to use the constructor SOAPHeaderElement (Element elem).
My elem has no namespaceURI, so the constructor throws a
NullPointerException at line 109:
        
        if
(getNamespaceURI().equals(SOAPConstants.SOAP12_CONSTANTS.getEnvelopeURI()))

Is it a bug?
Is there a way to bypass this problem?
Cheers
Marcello