AN ACCOUNTING REGULATION ANALYSIS THROUGH THE LENS OF MIGUEL REALE’S TRIDIMENSIONAL THEORY OF LAW ANáLISE DA REGULA O DA CONTABILIDADE à LUZ DA TEORIA TRIDIMENSIONAL DO DIREITO DE MIGUEL REALE

One of the most relevant challenges that accounting community (regulators, academics, prepares e auditors of financial reports) faces nowadays is regarding the design of accounting standards, in order to provide a faithful representation of a company’s economic and financial position to stakeholders. In this context, accounting regulation is crucial on professionals’ skills improvement and on shaping accounting practices to meet the stakeholders expectations related to the quantity and the quality of the accounting information. This is the most relevant reason for the actual process of changes on the Brazilian Financial Reporting Standards. Those changes include: the creation of Comitê de Pronunciamentos Contábeis (CPC, the Brazilian Financial Accounting Standards Board), the edition of the Laws n 11.638/07 and 11.941/09, and of a set of accounting standards by the Comiss o de Valores Mobiliários (CVM, the Brazilian Securities & Exchange Commission). While an interdisciplinary theoretical proposition, this paper suggests that Miguel Reale’s Tridimensional Theory of Law is helpful in understanding the financial accounting regulation process. According to Reale, the rule (law) is a consequence of the dialectic relationship among fact, value and rule, through the intervention of an entity with authority (power). Financial and economic fact (and events) that affect a company’s performance are analyzed by an entity with authority (CPC for instance) based on the values shared by the society (e.g., comprehensiveness, relevance, confidence, comparability), and from there rules (accounting standards) are developed. Um dos grandes desafios da comunidade contábil (reguladores, acadêmicos, elaboradores e auditores das demonstra es contábeis) diz respeito à escolha de padr es contábeis capazes de definir a forma mais adequada para o reconhecimento, mensura o e divulga o das informa es econ mico-financeiras ao público externo. Nessa situa o, a regula o da contabilidade exerce importante papel na conduta técnica de profissionais da área e no desenvolvimento de práticas que atendam os anseios dos usuários no tocante à quantidade e qualidade das informa es contábeis. No que tange ao Brasil, esse é o principal motivo das profundas altera es pelas quais vem passando o conjunto regulatório da contabilidade societária. Tais altera es envolvem: a cria o do Comitê de Pronunciamentos Contábeis (CPC), a edi o das Leis n 11.638/07 e 11.941/09 e a recente edi o de uma série de delibera es pela Comiss o de Valores Mobiliários (CVM). Este artigo se prop e, enquanto ens