diff --git a/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultMavenExecutionRequest.java b/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultMavenExecutionRequest.java
index 937cc8e6e0..bd995701a8 100644
--- a/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultMavenExecutionRequest.java
+++ b/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultMavenExecutionRequest.java
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ public class DefaultMavenExecutionRequest
         copy.setUserSettingsFile( original.getUserSettingsFile() );
         copy.setGlobalSettingsFile( original.getGlobalSettingsFile() );
         copy.setUserToolchainsFile( original.getUserToolchainsFile() );
-        copy.setBaseDirectory( new File( original.getBaseDirectory() ) );
+        copy.setBaseDirectory( ( original.getBaseDirectory() != null ) ? new File( original.getBaseDirectory() ) : null );
         copy.setGoals( original.getGoals() );
         copy.setRecursive( original.isRecursive() );
         copy.setPom( original.getPom() );
diff --git a/maven-core/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultMavenExecutionTestCase.java b/maven-core/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultMavenExecutionTestCase.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..320129cf46
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maven-core/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultMavenExecutionTestCase.java
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+package org.apache.maven.execution;
+
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you 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.
+ */
+
+import junit.framework.TestCase;
+
+/**
+ * @author Benjamin Bentmann
+ */
+public class DefaultMavenExecutionTestCase
+    extends TestCase
+{
+
+    public void testCopyDefault()
+    {
+        assertNotNull( DefaultMavenExecutionRequest.copy( new DefaultMavenExecutionRequest() ) );
+    }
+
+}