All Offshore - The Sprat, the Mackeral, Accounting Firms and the State in Globalization

Abstract

Globalization has created opportunities for major businesses to roam the world and shop for regulation conductive to their interests. Major auditing firms are no exception and have used offshore financial centres to dilute their liability. This chapter provides a case study to show that major firms used their political and financial resources to craft Limited Liability Partnership law in Jersey. This was done at a time when the UK government was reluctant to grant further liability concessions to auditors. The firms subsequently used the Jersey scenario to exert pressure upon the UK government and secure liability concessions.