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.