diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7d96a15fa4..9b831b491f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@ The following changes are pending, and will be applied on the next major release
 
 The following changes have been implemented but not released yet:
 
+### Bugfixes
+
+- [1549](https://github.com/inrupt/solid-client-js/issues/1549): The universal API had a bug preventing it from handling correctly resources with a missing ACL. This is now resolved, and it correctly proceeds to creating the target ACL if required.
+
 ## [1.30.1] - 2023-09-15
 
 ### Patch
diff --git a/src/universal/getAclServerResourceInfo.test.ts b/src/universal/getAclServerResourceInfo.test.ts
index dd2c428082..cb68e073ab 100644
--- a/src/universal/getAclServerResourceInfo.test.ts
+++ b/src/universal/getAclServerResourceInfo.test.ts
@@ -20,35 +20,78 @@
 //
 
 import { jest, describe, it, expect } from "@jest/globals";
-import { getResourceInfo } from "../resource/resource";
+import * as ResourceModule from "../resource/resource";
 import { getAclServerResourceInfo } from "./getAclServerResourceInfo";
+import type { WithServerResourceInfo } from "../interfaces";
+
+const { getResourceInfo } = ResourceModule;
 
 jest.mock("../resource/resource", () => ({
-  getResourceInfo: jest.fn().mockImplementation(() => ({})),
+  getResourceInfo: jest.fn(),
 }));
 
+const mockResourceInfo = (options: {
+  aclUrl?: string;
+}): WithServerResourceInfo["internal_resourceInfo"] => ({
+  isRawData: false,
+  aclUrl: options.aclUrl,
+  sourceIri: "https://example.org/some-resource",
+  linkedResources: {},
+});
+
 describe("getAclServerResourceInfo", () => {
   it("fetches the ACL resource info if the resource has an ACL", async () => {
-    await getAclServerResourceInfo({
-      internal_resourceInfo: { aclUrl: "x" },
-    } as any);
-    expect(getResourceInfo).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
-    expect(getResourceInfo).toHaveBeenCalledWith("x", undefined);
+    const aclResourceInfo = mockResourceInfo({});
+    const { getResourceInfo } = jest.mocked(ResourceModule);
+    getResourceInfo.mockResolvedValueOnce({
+      internal_resourceInfo: aclResourceInfo,
+    });
+
+    await expect(
+      getAclServerResourceInfo({
+        internal_resourceInfo: mockResourceInfo({
+          aclUrl: "https://example.org/some-acl",
+        }),
+      }),
+    ).resolves.toStrictEqual({
+      internal_resourceInfo: aclResourceInfo,
+    });
+  });
+
+  it("returns null if the resource ACL cannot be discovered", async () => {
+    const { getResourceInfo } = jest.mocked(ResourceModule);
+    getResourceInfo.mockRejectedValueOnce(null);
+    await expect(
+      getAclServerResourceInfo({
+        internal_resourceInfo: mockResourceInfo({
+          aclUrl: "https://example.org/some-missing-acl",
+        }),
+      }),
+    ).resolves.toBeNull();
   });
 
-  it("returns null if the resource has no ACL", async () => {
-    await getAclServerResourceInfo({
-      internal_resourceInfo: { aclUrl: undefined },
-    } as any);
-    expect(getResourceInfo).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(0);
+  it("returns null if fetching the resource ACL fails", async () => {
+    await expect(
+      getAclServerResourceInfo({
+        internal_resourceInfo: mockResourceInfo({ aclUrl: undefined }),
+      }),
+    ).resolves.toBeNull();
   });
 
   it("passes the fetch option to fetch the ACL resource info", async () => {
+    const mockedFetch = jest.fn<typeof fetch>();
     await getAclServerResourceInfo(
-      { internal_resourceInfo: { aclUrl: "x" } } as any,
-      { fetch: "x" } as any,
+      {
+        internal_resourceInfo: mockResourceInfo({
+          aclUrl: "https://example.org/some-acl",
+        }),
+      },
+      { fetch: mockedFetch },
     );
     expect(getResourceInfo).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
-    expect(getResourceInfo).toHaveBeenCalledWith("x", { fetch: "x" });
+    expect(getResourceInfo).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      "https://example.org/some-acl",
+      { fetch: mockedFetch },
+    );
   });
 });
diff --git a/src/universal/getAclServerResourceInfo.ts b/src/universal/getAclServerResourceInfo.ts
index f6c2fb2ede..6ead3a327b 100644
--- a/src/universal/getAclServerResourceInfo.ts
+++ b/src/universal/getAclServerResourceInfo.ts
@@ -39,8 +39,18 @@ export async function getAclServerResourceInfo(
   resource: WithServerResourceInfo,
   options?: DefaultOptions,
 ): Promise<WithServerResourceInfo | null> {
-  if (typeof resource.internal_resourceInfo.aclUrl === "string") {
-    return getResourceInfo(resource.internal_resourceInfo.aclUrl, options);
+  if (typeof resource.internal_resourceInfo.aclUrl !== "string") {
+    return null;
+  }
+  try {
+    return await getResourceInfo(
+      resource.internal_resourceInfo.aclUrl,
+      options,
+    );
+  } catch {
+    // A WAC-governed resource may have a link to a non-existant ACL (by design).
+    // The absence of an ACL at the target URL is a useful information that is
+    // used by the universal API to pick between ACR and WAC.
+    return null;
   }
-  return null;
 }