 Joseph Edmund Sterrett outlined the debate and issues in setting up a Code of Professional Conduct in his address to the annual meeting of the American Association of Public Accountants in 1907  The earliest "official" version of the code of professional conduct among American accountants was issued by the American Institute of Accountants on April 9, 1917.The opening principle of the code is that membership, and therefore adherence, to the code is voluntary.This means that an accountant is never under a legal responsibility to adhere to the code, and can renounce the code and membership in the AICPA at any time.