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affect sub-seabed disposal will undoubtedly respond primarily to political 

 considerations, the institutional aspects of this proposal must be examined 

 in order to determine its feasibility from this perspective. By interna- 

 tional institutional aspects are meant the set of formal substantive and 

 procedural requirements which are generally recognized by nations as posi- 

 tive prerequisites in carrying out such a project. Such institutional 

 issues can be conveniently viewed from the dual perspective of law and 

 organization — that is , what substantive standards apply to sub-seabed 

 disposal as a matter of international law and what organizational forms 

 can be utilized to perform such necessary actions as to interpret these 

 standards, facilitate compliance with them, or even conduct the various 

 administrative activities that might be required in connection with the 

 proposal. Since the organizational possibilities for actually administering 

 a sub-seabed disposcil project on the international level are quite various 

 and could serve a number of different objectives, and since only preliminary 

 steps have been taken at this point to secure the cooperation of other 

 nations in the development of this proposal, concrete institutional arrange- 

 ments will not be discussed here. At some future point, in projecting an 

 organizational pathway to serve various objectives connected with the pro- 

 posal, it will be useful to sketch out in a systematic form the full range 

 of organizational possibilities so that an informed choice can be made of 

 appropriate institutions to serve the desired fionctions. At present, how- 

 ever, it is enough to indicate in general the importance of involving inter- 

 national organizations in the development of the proposal and give some 

 preliminary indication of how such organizations have been and can be 

 used to provide an institutional vehicle for introduction and implementation 

 of a sub-seabed disposal proposal. 



