LEGAL ACCEPTANCE OF ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES: SOME LESSONS FROM HISTORY

1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Margo Reid
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Capital Maintenance ◽  
Fixed Asset ◽  
Business Corporation ◽  
Accounting Principles ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Court Of Appeal

This paper examines and contrasts nineteenth century case law in Great Britain and the United States in which courts had to decide whether to accept accounting concepts having to do with making provisions for depreciation, amortization and depletion. It should be emphasized that the courts were not arguing about accounting theory, per se; they were deciding particular disputes, which depended on the meaning in each case of pro its. By 1889, when Lee v. Neuchatel Asphalte Company was decided, British courts had rejected accepted fixed asset accounting conventions in determining profits in tax, dividend, and other cases while United States courts accepted these conventions, except in the case of wasting asset companies. This historical contrast is of particular interest because a recent reversal of these countries legal stances has occurred through legislation. In the United States, the Revised Model Business Corporation Act and the legislatures of several states have now rejected accounting concepts of profit as the legal test for dividends and other shareholder distributions. The reasons for this rejection appear to be similar to those used by the British Court of Appeal nearly 100 years ago. In Great Britain, on the other hand, the 1980 Companies Act reverses much of the Lee case and places on accountants new responsibilities for determining whether company distributions to shareholders would violate the capital maintenance provisions of the act.

Thinking About Scots Law

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Rodger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Empire ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University

This article is the revised text of the first W A Wilson Memorial Lecture, given in the Playfair Library, Old College, in the University of Edinburgh, on 17 May 1995. It considers various visions of Scots law as a whole, arguing that it is now a system based as much upon case law and precedent as upon principle, and that its departure from the Civilian tradition in the nineteenth century was part of a general European trend. An additional factor shaping the attitudes of Scots lawyers from the later nineteenth century on was a tendency to see themselves as part of a larger Englishspeaking family of lawyers within the British Empire and the United States of America.

Corruption as a Political Issue in Modern Societies: France, Great Britain and the United States in the Long 19th Century

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Ivo Engels
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Bureaucratic State

The so-called “long 19th century”, from the French Revolution to the First World War, ranks as the crucial phase in the genesis of the modern world. In the Western countries this period was characterized by the differentiation of the public and the private spheres, the birth of the modern bureaucratic state and the delegitimation of early modern practices such as clientelism and patronage. All these fundamental changes are, among other things, usually considered important preconditions for the modern perception of corruption.This paper will concentrate on this crucial phase by means of a comparative analysis of debates in France, Great Britain and the United States, with the aim to elucidate the motives for major anti-corruption movements. The questions are: who fights against corruption and what are the reasons for doing so? I will argue that these concerns were often very different and sometimes accidental. Furthermore, an analysis of political corruption may reveal differences between the political cultures in the countries in question. Thus, the history of corruption serves as a sensor which enables a specific perspective on politics. By taking this question as a starting point the focus is narrowed to political corruption and the debates about corruption, while petty bribery on the part of minor civilservants, as well as the actual practice in the case of extensive political corruption, is left aside.

Counterterrorism Between the Wars

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary S. Barton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
Independence Movements ◽  
Second World ◽  
The U.S

This is a book about terrorism, weapons, and diplomacy in the interwar years between the First and Second World Wars. It charts the convergence of the manufacture and trade of arms; diplomacy among the Great Powers and the domestic politics within them; the rise of national liberation and independence movements; and the burgeoning concept and early institutions of international counterterrorism. Key themes include: a transformation in meaning and practice of terrorism; the inability of Great Powers—namely, Great Britain, the United States, France—to harmonize perceptions of interest and the pursuit of common interests; the establishment of the tools and infrastructure of modern intelligence—including the U.S.-U.K. cooperation that would evolve into the Five Eyes intelligence alliance; and the nature of peacetime in the absence of major wars. Particular emphasis is given to British attempts to quell revolutionary nationalist movements in India and elsewhere in its empire, and to the Great Powers’ combined efforts to counter the activities of the Communist International. The facilitating roles of the Paris Peace Conference and League of Nations are explored here, in the context of the Arms Traffic Convention of 1919, the Arms Traffic Conference of 1925, and the 1937 Terrorism Convention.

The Process of Status Attainment in the United States and Great Britain

1975 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Treiman ◽  
Kermit Terrell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Attainment
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