diff --git a/lib/oga/xml/element.rb b/lib/oga/xml/element.rb
index b3f06a1..384177c 100644
--- a/lib/oga/xml/element.rb
+++ b/lib/oga/xml/element.rb
@@ -23,7 +23,9 @@ module Oga
     class Element < Node
       include Querying
 
-      attr_accessor :name, :namespace_name, :attributes, :namespaces
+      attr_accessor :name, :namespace_name, :attributes
+
+      attr_writer :namespaces
 
       ##
       # The attribute prefix/namespace used for registering element namespaces.
@@ -166,6 +168,16 @@ module Oga
         return @namespace
       end
 
+      ##
+      # Returns the namespaces registered on this element, or an empty Hash in
+      # case of an HTML element.
+      #
+      # @return [Hash]
+      #
+      def namespaces
+        return html? ? {} : @namespaces
+      end
+
       ##
       # Returns true if the current element resides in the default XML
       # namespace.
@@ -294,6 +306,8 @@ module Oga
       # @return [Hash]
       #
       def available_namespaces
+        return {} if html? # HTML(5) completely ignores namespaces
+
         merged = namespaces.dup
         node   = parent
 
diff --git a/spec/oga/xml/element_spec.rb b/spec/oga/xml/element_spec.rb
index ef080b5..daf6ebc 100644
--- a/spec/oga/xml/element_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/oga/xml/element_spec.rb
@@ -10,9 +10,12 @@ describe Oga::XML::Element do
       described_class.new.attributes.should == []
     end
 
-    describe 'setting namespaces' do
+    describe 'with a namespace' do
       before do
-        attr = Oga::XML::Attribute.new(:name => 'foo', :namespace_name => 'xmlns')
+        attr = Oga::XML::Attribute.new(
+          :name           => 'foo',
+          :namespace_name => 'xmlns'
+        )
 
         @element = described_class.new(:attributes => [attr])
       end
@@ -26,7 +29,7 @@ describe Oga::XML::Element do
       end
     end
 
-    describe 'setting the default namespace without a prefix' do
+    describe 'with a default namespace' do
       before do
         attr = Oga::XML::Attribute.new(:name => 'xmlns', :value => 'foo')
 
@@ -205,6 +208,38 @@ describe Oga::XML::Element do
 
       element.namespace.should == namespace
     end
+
+    describe 'in an HTML document' do
+      it 'returns nil' do
+        ns  = Oga::XML::Namespace.new(:name => 'xmlns')
+        el  = described_class.new(:namespaces => {'xmlns' => ns})
+        doc = Oga::XML::Document.new(:type => :html, :children => [el])
+
+        el.namespace.should be_nil
+      end
+    end
+  end
+
+  describe '#namespaces' do
+    it 'returns the registered namespaces as a Hash' do
+      namespace = Oga::XML::Namespace.new(:name => 'x')
+      element   = described_class.new(
+        :namespace_name => 'x',
+        :namespaces     => {'x' => namespace}
+      )
+
+      element.namespaces.should == {'x' => namespace}
+    end
+
+    describe 'in an HTML document' do
+      it 'returns an empty Hash' do
+        ns  = Oga::XML::Namespace.new(:name => 'xmlns')
+        el  = described_class.new(:namespaces => {'xmlns' => ns})
+        doc = Oga::XML::Document.new(:type => :html, :children => [el])
+
+        el.namespaces.should == {}
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   describe '#default_namespace?' do
@@ -469,6 +504,16 @@ describe Oga::XML::Element do
     it 'does not modify the list of direct namespaces' do
       @child.namespaces.key?('foo').should == false
     end
+
+    describe 'in an HTML document' do
+      it 'returns an empty Hash' do
+        ns  = Oga::XML::Namespace.new(:name => 'xmlns')
+        el  = described_class.new(:namespaces => {'xmlns' => ns})
+        doc = Oga::XML::Document.new(:type => :html, :children => [el])
+
+        el.available_namespaces.should == {}
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   describe '#self_closing?' do
diff --git a/spec/oga/xpath/evaluator/html_spec.rb b/spec/oga/xpath/evaluator/html_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e9d145
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/oga/xpath/evaluator/html_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+require 'spec_helper'
+
+describe Oga::XPath::Evaluator do
+  describe 'querying HTML documents' do
+    before do
+      @document = parse_html('<html xmlns="foo"><body></body></html>')
+      @body     = @document.children[0].children[0]
+    end
+
+    it 'returns a NodeSet when a custom default namespace is declared' do
+      evaluate_xpath(@document, 'html/body').should == node_set(@body)
+    end
+  end
+end