This chapter presents an approach to teaching bond liabilities and investments in the typical undergraduate Intermediate Accounting II course, using the statement of cash flows, including both indirect and direct approaches. From the perspectives of the issuer and holder, emphasis is placed on journal entries reflecting interest accruals, amortization of discounts and premiums, and early extinguishment of such financial instruments, as well as the treatments of such entries in the statement of cash flows. Students are expected to explain the reasons underlying such treatments. The results of this innovation suggest that students enhance their understanding of accounting for bonds and the statement of cash flows by application of this approach.

ABSTRACT This manuscript is a biography of George H. Sorter. An innovative accounting theorist and educator, Sorter was concerned about how accounting information could be used in financial and management decision-making. He criticized accounting as a profession for failing to own up to the limitations of financial reports, which do not reveal the “value” of the firm, and for hiding behind confusing jargon. As a result, Sorter formulated an “events” approach to provide financial statement users with data useful for decision making. Valuation of the firm is a subjective endeavor, a matter of individual user perception, he maintained. He served as a member of the AAA Committee for “A Statement of Basic Accounting Theory” (ASOBAT) and as the research director of the AICPA's “Objectives of Financial Statements” (AICPA 1973, Trueblood Report). This manuscript focuses primarily on Sorter's contributions to the Trueblood Report.

This article examines Justice Scalia’s effort to limit judicial discretion through the lens of the debate between rules and standards. It is the first article to situate Scalia’s goal of limited discretion within the framework of the debate between rules and standards, as well as the first to discuss this issue specifically with respect to his Fourth Amendment decisions. Rules are binding directives that leave little room for considering the specific facts of any given situation. Critics argue that they tend to be over- or underinclusive, but the value of rules is that by taking power away from the decisionmaker, they limit judicial discretion. Further, some argue that rules promote democracy because they properly leave the power to make decisions based on politics or value judgments to the legislature. On the flip side, proponents of standards argue that standards produce judgments that are less arbitrary and more substantively fair because they allow decisionmakers to consider all of the relevant facts and circumstances of the case. Justice Scalia has been called the leading supporter of the “rules-as-democracy argument.” He argued that rules were preferable because they are more likely to ensure equal treatment among like cases, they make the law clear in a system where the Supreme Court can review only a small number of cases, and they ensure predictability. How does this philosophy of limited judicial discretion manifest in the Fourth Amendment context? Because the Fourth Amendment specifically prohibits “unreasonable” searches—which arguably dictates a standard—Justice Scalia often sought to construct rules that could curb a limitless interpretation of “unreasonable.” Further, the Fourth Amendment context is unique because of the strong interest for police to have intelligible rules dictating the scope of any potential search. Part One of this Article discusses Scalia’s Fourth Amendment cases in the criminal context. It first discusses his methodology when approaching Fourth Amendment cases, and then outlines the cases where he advocated for bright-line rules that would limit judicial discretion. Part Two demonstrates his departure from the rules approach in civil special needs cases and cases involving remedies for Fourth Amendment violations.

This chapter considers the evolution of sustainability accounting examining three different sustainability initiatives to improve the social performance of powerful corporations. They are the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 4.0 and Project 2025, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards, and the Lev and Gu Model. The outcome of this research will be a retrospective on how these models developed and a comparison of their characteristics It begins with a background section on the rationale for sustainability reporting in historical academic business literature and then on to historical academic accounting literature. This analysis is followed by separate sections on the GRI, SASB, and Lev/Gu models of sustainability disclosures. The chapter ends with a recapitulation of each of these models.

Systemic racism in the United States is pervasive. It runs through every aspect of society, from healthcare to education. Changing all of the parts of society touched by racism is necessary, however, this Article does not provide a cure for systemic racism. It seeks to address a byproduct of this racism: police brutality. Over and over, headlines broadcast the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of the police – why has nothing changed? This Article argues that meaningful reform requires trust in U.S. law enforcement, which can only be achieved by holding police accountable and deterring misconduct. To do so, this Article proposes meaningful and forceful police licensing to guarantee more third-party, unbiased oversight.

Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Citation Robert Bloom; Richard K. Fleischman, Jr.: A Remembrance. Accounting Historians Journal 1 December 2020; 47 (2): 37–40. https://doi.org/10.2308/AAHJ-2020-013 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAccounting Historians Journal Search Advanced Search

ABSTRACT This paper traces the historical development of other comprehensive income (OCI) and comprehensive income (CI), analyzing how their evolution has unfolded. Emphasis is on authoritative pronouncements issued by the AICPA, FASB, and IASB. This paper discusses OCI applications from specific standards issued by the FASB and IASB. This paper also examines assertions from selected contemporary accounting books on this subject.

With the advent of DNA exonerations, the data would indicate that many individuals have been wrongly convicted. In looking at the causes of the exonerations, nearly 20% have involved testimony by accomplices and jailhouse informants. The questionable credibility of these individuals has long been recognized by courts and legislatures. Reforms in this area include, enhanced jury instructions, pre-trial credibility hearings, and corroboration before the testimony can be introduced. This article argues the efficacy of expert testimony to further assist jurors in measuring the credibility of these witnesses. Although the use of experts has largely been disfavored by courts, there has been a gradual movement to use experts for eyewitness identifications, the major cause of exonerations. The article proposes a similar movement for informant testimony.

Answering the personal jurisdiction question—that is, whether a court has power over a party—has required an ever-evolving analysis since the United States Supreme Court’s 1878 holding in Pennoyer v. Neff that a state’s exercise of jurisdiction must be consistent with due process. Under Pennoyer, the due process analysis centered on the state’s power over people and property, as well as its ability to regulate the status of people and entities operating within its borders. In 1945, in International Shoe Co. v. Washington, the Supreme Court articulated a new standard: due process is satisfied so long as a defendant has “certain minimum contacts” with the state such that the suit “does not offend ‘traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.’” This Article argues that the Supreme Court’s recent decisions have effectively revived Pennoyer’s focus on physical presence and status, at the expense of the fairness and contact considerations set forth in International Shoe, as the bases for asserting personal jurisdiction. Part I details the jurisdictional analysis under both Pennoyer and International Shoe. Part II discusses the evolution of personal jurisdiction doctrine under International Shoe. Part III demonstrates that the Court’s recent decisions have revitalized Pennoyer’s territorially based regime, and consequently diminished the thrust of International Shoe.

This paper examines how the concept of "conservatism" evolved in historical and contemporary accounting writings using authoritative professional and academic documents. The paper reviews the application of conservatism in the FASB and IASB conceptual frameworks. A brief discussion of empirical research on conservatism is provided. Finally, the paper looks at the declining influence of conservatism in private company accounting principles in three selected countries: Belgium, Switzerland, and Japan. Conservatism is found to be a perennial issue in accounting practice and accounting standard setting. This concept has long been embedded in private company accounting in different countries. Its rationale, along with its conflict with neutrality have been debated for centuries.

In recent years, especially in national political campaigns, there has been much discussion about who is in the top 1% of American wealth, how they landed in this category, and what special income tax provisions perpetuate their status. As a reaction to this debate in this category, the Dodd Frank Act and the Consumer Protection Act of 2010 have mandated disclosure by publicly registered companies to disclose the median employee to CEO pay ratio. The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued specific guidance on this requirement. That is the subject of this article.

This paper reassesses the significance of the concept of matching expenses to revenues as an accounting principle. We compare and contrast the historical views of authoritative bodies and the various scholars and practitioners who analyze this subject, drawing implications for future standard setting. Through this historical retrospective on matching, which includes a review of more contemporary research and thought, we find that matching as an approach to income measurement can be helpful in forecasting earning power. Consequently, we conclude that matching should be retained as a long-standing fundamental accounting principle in standard-setting and in practice.

This article provides an overview on “clawbacks” as many public companies include them in their compensation policies, such as stock options, restricted stock, and other incentive performance plans. The rationale and nature of this provision and its implications for accountability and management are considered. Academic research on the impact of clawbacks is reviewed. Dodd-Frank Act provisions and Securities and Exchange Commission actions on clawbacks are discussed.

The past fifty years has witnessed an evolution in technology advancement in police surveillance. Today, one of the essential tools of police surveillance is something most Americans carry with them in their pockets every day, the cell phone. Cell phones not only contain a huge repository of personal data, they also provide continuous surveillance of a person’s movement known as cell site location information (CSLI). In 1986, Congress sought to provide some privacy protections to CSLI in the Stored Communication Act. Although this solution may have struck the proper balance in an age when cell phones were a mere novelty in the hands of a comparative few, we now live in an age where, as the U.S. Supreme Court recently recognized, cell phones could be seen “an important feature of human anatomy.” In 1986, there were only an estimated 681,825 subscribers serviced by 1531, cell sites. By 2013, there were 335 million subscribers and over 340,000 cell sites. Recently, cell phone service providers have begun to use small cell technologies, miniature cell phone towers that can provide additional coverage and bandwidth support to overburdened cellular networks. Small cells, known variously as femtocells, picocells, and microcells, are already installed throughout the United States, in particular in urban areas. As small cells overtake traditional cell phone towers as the most common means of transmitting cellular signals, CSLI will transform from a means of placing a person’s phone in a general area within a matter of miles to a precise location tracking tool charting a person’s movements down to a matter of feet. The late Justice Scalia in his 2001 majority opinion in Kyllo v. U.S., a case involving thermal imaging, opined that “while the technology used in the present case was relatively crude, the rule we adopt must take account of more sophisticated systems that are already in use or in development.” This Article explores the evolution of CSLI by focusing on the rise of small cell technologies. It also canvasses decisions in the circuits involving CSLI. It points out that the third-party exception to the Fourth Amendment is inapplicable to CSLI. Following Justice Scalia’s admonition, we believe that CSLI will only grow more precise as small cells infiltrate cellular networks and we therefore adopt an approach that incorporates the Fourth Amendment requirements for a search warrant particularly describing the place to be searched and items to be seized as well as the requirement for probable cause. Placing CSLI under the Fourth Amendment would make a major section of the Stored Communication Act unconstitutional.

On January 29, 2016, the Obama administration proposed that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collect yearly data on remuneration based on gender, race, and ethnicity from firms having at least 100 employees. However, it so happens that the current Global Reporting Initiative framework calls for such information to be reported by organizations voluntarily. This article focuses on the remuneration and benefit items expected to be reported by organizations in the fourth version of the Global Reporting Initiative.