ABSTRACT
The defenders of professional monopoly comprised the three organizations which merged to form the Institute of Chartered Accountants (CA) of Scotland in 1951: the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh, the Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Glasgow and the Society of Accountants in Aberdeen. From the viewpoint of the challengers to the chartered monopoly the Scottish Institute and the Corporation - litigation was preferred as the chartered societies' claim to exclusive use of the "CA" designation was based on contestable legal foundations. The critique of the chartered monopoly offered by the Scottish institute and the Corporation of Accountants, challenging the underlying objectives and behaviour of the chartered societies in defending their privileges, is most usefully analysed in terms of an alternative critical approach to the study of professions. The Scottish CAs were compelled to justify the existence of their monopoly given its contradiction of free market liberalism.
