how to test if XML = '' in sql server?

You may check for NULL and nodes absence (exist method of xml type):

@ListNoteTypeCode is NULL OR @ListNoteTypeCode.exist('*') = 0

Your XPath can be more specific, if necessary:

@ListNoteTypeCode is NULL OR @ListNoteTypeCode.exist('/BulletPoint/NoteTypeCode/text()') = 0

Another way to test for an empty XML parameter, variable, or column is to check the DATALENGTH. Any empty XML item should be 5 bytes. For example:

DECLARE @Test TABLE (XmlParam XML NULL);
INSERT INTO @Test ([XmlParam]) VALUES (NULL), (N''), (N'g');

SELECT t.[XmlParam],
       DATALENGTH(t.[XmlParam]) AS [DATALENGTH],
       CASE (ISNULL(DATALENGTH(t.[XmlParam]), 5))
          WHEN 5 THEN 'EMPTY'
          ELSE 'Not Empty'
       END AS [IsEmpty]
FROM   @Test t;

Returns:

XmlParam     DATALENGTH    IsEmpty
--------     ----------    ---------
NULL         NULL          EMPTY
             5             EMPTY
g            9             Not Empty

Please note that I used ISNULL(DATALENGTH(t.[XmlParam]), 5) as that should be fine for checking a parameter or variable. If checking a column, it might be better to use XmlColumn IS NULL OR DATALENGTH(XmlColumn) = 5.

Please also note that while it is possible for the internal representation of XML data to change between versions, I have tested on SQL Server 2008 R2, 2012, and 2014 and the size of an empty XML item is consistently 5.