diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/LicenseUtils.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/LicenseUtils.java
index 56c40822c4..38f2e2ae2e 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/LicenseUtils.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/LicenseUtils.java
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ public class LicenseUtils
         // + DCDate.getCurrent().toString() + " (GMT):\n\n" + license;
 
         // Store text as a bitstream
-        byte[] licenseBytes = licenseText.getBytes();
+        byte[] licenseBytes = licenseText.getBytes("UTF-8");
         ByteArrayInputStream bais = new ByteArrayInputStream(licenseBytes);
         Bitstream b = item.createSingleBitstream(bais, "LICENSE");
 
diff --git a/dspace-xmlui/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/xmlui/wing/element/SimpleHTMLFragment.java b/dspace-xmlui/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/xmlui/wing/element/SimpleHTMLFragment.java
index 89cb5bb971..e3306aef70 100644
--- a/dspace-xmlui/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/xmlui/wing/element/SimpleHTMLFragment.java
+++ b/dspace-xmlui/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/xmlui/wing/element/SimpleHTMLFragment.java
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ public class SimpleHTMLFragment extends AbstractWingElement {
 			String xml = "<fragment>" + fragment + "</fragment>";
 
 			ByteArrayInputStream inputStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(xml
-					.getBytes());
+					.getBytes("UTF-8"));
 
 			SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
 			Document document = builder.build(inputStream);