Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy of proteins is widely used to measure protein secondary structure, and to detect changes in secondary and higher orders of structure, for applications in research and in the quality control of protein products such as biopharmaceuticals. However, objective comparison of spectra is challenging because of a limited quantitative understanding of the sources of error in the measurement. Statistical methods can be used for comparisons, but do not provide a mechanism for dealing with systematic, as well as random, errors. Here we present a measurement model for CD spectroscopy of proteins, incorporating the principal sources of uncertainty, and use the model in conjunction with experimental data to derive an uncertainty budget. We show how this approach could be used in practice for the objective comparison of spectra, and discuss the benefits and limitations of this strategy.