Creatures of statute may include municipalities and other artificial legal entities or relationships.
Often, in American legal and business documents that speak of governing bodies (e.g., a board that governs small businesses in China) these bodies are described as "creatures of statute" to inform readers of their origins and format although the national governments that created them may not term them as creatures of statute.
Australia also uses the term "creature of statute" to describe some governmental bodies.
[2] The importance of a corporate body, regardless of its exact function, when such a body is a creature of statute is that its active functions can only be within the scope detailed by the statute which created that corporation.
Unlike most (private) corporate bodies, creatures of statute cannot expand their business interests into other diverse areas.