Abstract. Although sophisticated languages have been proposed for defining algebraic specifications, the relationships with OO implementations that have been established so far are restricted to very simple cases. Key aspects at the specification side s.a. genericity and subsorting are not covered, although they have obvious counterparts in OO programming that are extremely useful and popular. In this paper we establish a connection between algebraic specifications and objectoriented programs that takes these two aspects into account. More precisely, we propose an interpretation of specifications involving subsorting and parametrisation in terms of Java programs useful for defining a notion of conformance. This connection paves the way for the extension of CONGU, a tool-based approach we have been developing to support runtime checking of Java programs against algebraic specifications, so that it becomes applicable to a more comprehensive range of situations, namely those that appear in the context of a typical Algorithms and Data Structures course. 1