Is there a more elegant way to do null checks?

In JSTL I can do a null check like so:

<c:if test="${not empty template.scripts.inline.head}">do something</c:if>

Template is a map in the request with a scripts entry.  Scripts is a map
with an inline entry. Inline is a map with a head entry.  Head is a list of
strings containing a number of scripts to be put in the head.  A nice thing
about JSTL is I did not have to worry about if it was null or not.

When I rewrote my tag files as macros, I produced a lot of bloated template
code like so:

[#if (template?? && template.scripts?? && template.scripts.inline?? &&
template.scripts.inline.head??)]do something[/#if]

Is there a more elegant way to check if the head value is empty?  I have
considered making a pre-directive for all my macros that would setup an
empty non null model, ensuring they are never null but don't like that
solution.  Thanks for your help. -David.
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