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Considering corporate governance as a monitoring device, this paper provides a conceptual framework to analyze the consequences of audit committees in terms of audit process quality (indirect effects) and financial reporting quality (direct effects). A thorough analysis of empirical research then makes it possible to assess the main contributions of audit committees, as well as the effectiveness of these structures. Broadly speaking, it is shown that the audit committee-s independence often contributes to the quality of an external audit and to the reliability of accounting data (with nuances); it is further shown that the committee-s financial expertise promotes the reliability of internal control and the relevance of financial reports. Hence, independence and expertise seem to complement each other to achieve audit committee effectiveness. Limits and proposals for future research are discussed at the end.