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Legal Acceptance Of Accounting Principles In Great Britain And The United States: Some Lessons From History, Jean Margo Reid

Accounting Historians Journal

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 …