Accounting Reform and Business Law

Reforma Contable y Derecho Mercantil

Abstract

Current Accounting Reform involves both Accounting Model and Accounting System. This article deals mostly with the Accounting System, and takes the Audit Reform as the main subject of the matter from the legal point of view. The article focuses on the current Accounting System Reform in Spain, but it refers also to the recent issues on this matter in the USA (Enron Debacle, Sarbanes/Oxley Act of 2002) and in the European Un ion, both in the field of Legislation and in recent European Justice Court doctrine (de Wouters judgment of February, 12th., 2002). The recent crisis have forced legislators to pass more severe rules for both officers and auditors on accounting disclosure, but some open problems remain. The first one deals with concerns about efficiency of the mandatory rotation rule, which recents Laws apply only to the teams that revised the last annual accounts, but not to the Auditing Firm itself, which is allowed auditing the same client per saecula saeculorum. The last issue thereon is the discussion about the Accountants civil liability before third persons that is, shareholders and investors-, who are at the very heart of the problem and need the most the help of a renewed Accounting System to recover confidence.