A quite common adage states that “the devil is in the detail”. Although this statement generally has its merits, it appears that in the context of the governance of global affairs and in the situation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in particular, it may no longer prove to be valid. Important evidence suggests that instead the “devil” seems to have seized the multilateral trading system or global legal order as a whole. Based on this assumption the present article has opted for a more general overview of so-called “ugly complexities inseparable from giant organisations of commerce and state”, leaving a more detailed analysis of various deficiencies and weak points in the WTO aside. It also does not aim at offering answers to the problems detected in connection with the present challenges that the WTO is confronted with. Only for the sake of methodological clarity, the present article categorises the following “twelve challenges to the WTO” according to whether the challenge posed to the WTO stems from external or internal factors.