Social contract theories also require some rules to guide the formation of agreement. Since they are prior to the contract, there must be some source of prior moral norms, whether natural, rational, or conventional. The first rule that is normally prescribed is that there must be no force or fraud in the making of the agreement. No one is to be “coerced” into agreement by the threat of physical violence. The reasoning for this is quite straightforwardly prudential: if one is allowed to use viole