THE ETHICS OF DISCLOSURE IN COMPANY FINANCIAL REPORTING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 1925-1970

Ethics is understood as the worthiness of the rights and needs for accounting information of contending groups in society. Company law is viewed as a means by which users of financial statements rights and needs have been redressed, and which users have relatively less important claims for information. The moral idealism of a true and fair view is being converted into impersonal disclosure laws which serve to provide, in the main, for the needs of shareholders.