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 instincts
to make the correct choice. 
Remember that 
laws
do not necessarily help an individual to resolve an ethical issue – indeed many 
members of society feel torn when their 
personal ethics
lead them to feel that following a particular 
law
is 
immoral
. That said, where a professional duty conflicts with statute, ACCA's advice is clear – the 
law 
overrides
it every time. 
8.2.1 Ethics and contractual obligations 
Contractual obligations
differ from statute in the sense that an individual enters into a contract 
voluntarily
; there is no voluntary element to statutory obligations. 
This means an individual may break contractual obligations without breaking the law. For this reason, 
professional 
ethics should be followed even if this is at the expense of a contractual obligation
. 
Logically this means that, given the choice of breaking professional ethics or a term in your contract of 
employment, you must give the profession priority. The law and employment tribunals will support an 
employee whose employer required them to break their professional ethics – the problem is that many 
employees would not want to go to court over such matters. 
8.2.2 Examples of ethical tensions 
The following are examples of how tensions between sets of values can be created. 
(a)
Societal values and corporate values
An individual may be asked by their employer to act in an illegal way, for example to discriminate 
against a disabled or ethnic employee. 
BPP Tutor Toolkit Copy

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PART F: PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS 
 
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(b)
Personal values and corporate values
An individual may not agree with certain activities of their organisation, such as the use of child 
labour in foreign factories. While not necessarily illegal, it goes against their own moral beliefs. 
(c)