  We can make progress by distinguishing between value of different kinds. Some value is relational—it exists in virtue of relationships in which people stand. That a relationship has such value is a reason to do what will bring it into existence. The value of friendship is a reason to make friends. The value of egalitarian social relations is a reason to break down barriers of status and rank. Some argue that we have sufficient reason to have criminal law because it helps us enter a valuable relationship: it helps transform our relations with one another from relations of mutual dependence, to relations of independence from the power of others (Ripstein 2009, 300–324; Thorburn 2011a, 2011b).