Notwithstanding their specificities, different network infrastructures share a fundamental property: they are embedded in and part of general institutional settings. In this chapter, we focus on this institutional dimension. The main point we make is that institutions are composed of different layers. Identifying and characterizing these layers is both challenging and essential for better understanding the alignment (or misalignment) between institutions and technologies that conditions the performance of specific infrastructures. It is challenging because the usual representations of institutions tend to aggregate and mix or even revise many distinct components such as firms, parliaments, courts, etc. It is essential because it is through the different layers that rights are defined, allocated, implemented, and monitored, thus providing the scaffolding of network infrastructures. A central hypothesis underlying the analysis provided in this chapter is that these infrastructures are socio-technological systems; although subject to physical laws through their technological dimension, their development and usage are framed by human-made rules and rights.