The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea was divided along lines established for the preparitory Conference. The plenary consisted of all delegates of all delegations and was generally used to make formal what had already been negotiated in closed sessions. In the fifth session, it took on a new function as a forum for debating in closed session proposed articles on dispute settlement. In the future, it will look at drafts of the preamble and final clauses to the Convention. Each of three primary committees was empowered with specific issues to consider, again stemming from the preparitory Conference. Within these committees, subcommittees often discussed specific topics or working groups tried to obtain limited agreement on articles
