The corporate audit function is in a state of crisis. The credibility of the auditor's role of attesting the quality of disclosed financial statements is subject to intense public scrutiny. It is therefore especially timely to observe the corporate audit function, examining the conceptual foundations on which it is based, and the issues which arise from such a structure. This new textbook, from the author of "Company Auditing", reviews the contemporary role of the corporate auditor and analyzes the nature of auditors' behaviour and of audit practice. By introducing students to the theoretical aspects of corporate auditing from a number of angles, it sets the current crisis in corporate auditing in its proper context. The book adopts both an economic and a social perspective. It examines the corporate audit both as part of economic agency and as a professional activity. The approach is a mixture of "critical" and "uncritical" thinking.