As a Master’s student, I have been writing about many articles on the ethics in accounting. A lot of it has to do with whether accountants serve shareholders or public interest, and defining what public interest really is. The most interesting module was on taxes and whether the tax practitioner has a responsibility to the client, government (irs, etc.), or standards of the institutions (AICPA). Would a tax accountant be responsible for making sure the client pays as little taxes as possible through legal loopholes or make sure they pay their fair share? Other papers talked about earnings management and how serving self-interest is inherently immoral. For example, it may be legal to repurchase shares to boost EPS, while ignoring R&D, but it cannot be moral, especially when the lack of reinvesting into the firm leads to hundreds of deaths.
Most of the articles I’ve read debate whether accountants hold a moral obligation of professionalism to uphold trust as opposed to trying to make the most money. That’s why firms cannot legally offer conflicting services, like auditing and consulting, because the firm will want to make their consulting seem better than it is. That’s what happened with Enron and Arthur Andersen.
These accounting debates make me think about current events and how laws and ethical obligations don’t often connect. Even today, I see debates online dehumanizing people or saying they deserved certain consequences for “breaking the law” or not complying.
This may seem all over the place, but I hope it leads to meaningful discussion.
TLDR: questions on laws vs. ethics
Does following the rules make you ethical, or just compliant?
Can a legal system be structurally legitimate while routinely producing outcomes that conflict with the moral intuitions it claims to protect?
If legal loopholes exist but exploiting them shifts the burden onto others, is using them unethical even when permitted?
Can accountants, lawyers, or soldiers deflect personal ethical responsibility by pointing to their institutional obligations?