Whatever happened to the Quadro Fedele?

Abstract

The English language version of the Fourth Directive included a general clause that the accounts of a company should give a true and fair view. The same article 2 (3) of the Italian version of the directive called for the accounts of a company to give a quadro fedele. Several years later the directive was incorporated into Italian law, but, departing from the term used in the Italian version, called instead for the accounts to give una rappresentazione veritiera e corretta. This paper shows that since it first appeared in Italian law in 1983 there has been no homogeneous understanding in Italy among legal experts as to the meaning of a quadro fedele and that it was ultimately replaced in the 1990s with the rappresentazione veritiera e corretta because it failed in the mind of the legislators to reproduce in Italian the perceived spirit of the British version.