This paper focuses on the roles that multistakeholder institutions have in the realm of internet governance. The paper describes a model that frames the conversation around internet governance within the context of the layered model of the internet consisting of infrastructure, logical, content, and social layers. The paper uses examples such as the 2012 negotiations in Dubai at the World Conference on International Telecommunications to demonstrate how legal proposals can go off course if institutions like the ITU and the IETF lose the grasp on their respective areas of expertise. Areas of conflict that are examined include the desire to promote increased broadband infrastructure and Russia's and China's desire to use the ITU to regulate content on the Internet through cybersecurity provisions. The paper concludes that not all of these areas can be regulated through an international treaty and that there need to be more mechanisms for global cooperation in policy development at the Internet Governance Group.