Italy. The transition to IFRS in Italy and elsewhere, or from code napoléon to the devolution of sovereignty

Abstract

The approval and implementation of EU Directives started a process of clash between civil-law and common-law countries which, in creeping a way, is on move since then with pervasive effects on the accounting theory and practice and on the accounting profession as well. The story got underway by the unclear true and fair concept, implemented by each national state according to its previous legal and accounting tradition. To unravel the problem, the passage was suggested to IAS-International Accounting Standards, these ones being-on their turn-heavily country-minded. As a result, a process was step by step implemented which led to the adoption of IFRS, the so-called common global language for accounting in Europe as well as in the world. To be true, anyway, one should distinguish first between hotchpotch and harmonization as such (due to zillions of alternatives); secondly, between the grounding of standards in Anglo-Saxcon accounting and common law v. the implementation of the same ones within income-based theories of the firm and civil law as well.