The specifications for java.awt.Component.get/setComponentOrientation do not specify the handling of null values. There are two possibilities:
1) setComponentOrientation throws NullPointerException when null is passed in; getComponentOrientation does not return null.
2) setComponentOrientation accepts null, getComponentOrientation may return null.

Currently, no exception is thrown. However, numerous callers in the J2RE assume that getComponentOrientation returns non-null values and call methods on the returned object without first checking for null. This indicates that solution 1) should be preferred.