1. Introduction Ronald Niezen and Maria Sapignoli; 2. Heart of darkness: an exploration of the WTO Marc Abélès; 3. Horseshoe and catwalk: power, complexity and consensus-making in the United Nations Security Council Niels Nagelhus Schia; 4. A kaleidoscopic institutional form: expertise and transformation in the permanent forum on indigenous issues Maria Sapignoli; 5. The 'public' character of the Universal Periodic Review: contested concept and methodological challenge Jane K. Cowan and Julie Billaud; 6. Meeting 'the world' at the Palais Wilson: embodied universalism at the UN Human Rights Committee Miia Halme-Tuomisaari; 7. Expertise and quantification in global institutions Sally Engle Merry; 8. From boardrooms to field programs: humanitarianism and international development in Southern Africa Robert K. Hitchcock; 9. Global village courts: international organizations and the bureaucratization of rural justice systems in the Global South Tobias Berger; 10. Contrasting values of forests and ice in the making of a global climate agreement Noor Johnson and David Rojas; 11. The best of the best: positing, measuring and sensing value in the UNESCO World Heritage Arena Christoph Brumann; 12. Propaganda on trial: structural fragility and the epistemology of international legal institutions Richard Ashby Wilson; 13. The anthropology by organizations: legal knowledge and the UN's ethnological imagination Ronald Niezen; Index.