diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_utils_python.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_utils_python.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..92e76781c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_utils_python.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+import unittest
+
+from scrapy.utils.python import str_to_unicode, unicode_to_str
+
+class UtilsPythonTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_str_to_unicode(self):
+        # converting an utf-8 encoded string to unicode
+        self.assertEqual(str_to_unicode('lel\xc3\xb1e'), u'lel\xf1e')
+
+        # converting a unicode to unicode should return the same object
+        self.assertEqual(str_to_unicode(u'\xf1e\xf1e\xf1e'), u'\xf1e\xf1e\xf1e')
+
+        # converting a strange object should raise TypeError
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, str_to_unicode, 423)
+
+    def test_unicode_to_str(self):
+        # converting a unicode object to an utf-8 encoded string
+        self.assertEqual(unicode_to_str(u'\xa3 49'), '\xc2\xa3 49')
+
+        # converting a regular string to string should return the same object
+        self.assertEqual(unicode_to_str('lel\xf1e'), 'lel\xf1e')
+
+        # converting a strange object should raise TypeError
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, unicode_to_str, unittest)
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()