The conflict theory elaborates on the nature and normative significance of three types of conflict: inherently valuable, tolerably valuable, and valueless. The theory emphasizes the importance of preventing valueless conflict, containing tolerably valuable conflict, and constructing the conditions necessary for inherently valuable conflict to arise. Moreover, the human conflict to which tort law responds reflects a commitment to treating the parties to a conflict as equals. The equality theory is grounded in the egalitarian ideal of relating as equals, thus tort law must determine terms of interaction that take seriously differences in the interests and conditions of the interacting parties. By doing so, tort law secures the ability of the parties in a conflict to relate as substantive, rather than merely formal, equals.