The Companies Act 1862[1] (25 & 26 Vict.

c. 89) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom regulating UK company law, whose descendant is the Companies Act 2006.

Under section 167 of the Companies Act 1862 one of the functions of a liquidator was to bring criminal proceedings against directors and others who were alleged to have committed offences in relation to the company.

[9] In the song "Some seven men form an association" in Gilbert and Sullivan's Utopia, Limited, King Paramount reforms the island of Utopia into a limited-liability company under the provisions of the Companies Act.

[citation needed] However, in the operetta, it is instead referred to as "the Joint Stock Companies Act of sixty-two," perhaps also alluding to the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 which was referenced in their previous opera, The Gondoliers.