Articles Of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation is a constitutional system agreed upon by thirteen United member States of America to govern the said states as a union. According to International Society for Individual Liberty (n.d), the Draft for the Articles was made in 1777 and ratified to law in 1781.
The Articles of confederation has the mandate to hear cases where states enter into treaties between themselves without consent of Congress, military related cases especially concerning vessels and militia, and war related cases where no state is allowed to enter into war without consent of the congress (International Society for Individual Liberty, n.d). In addition, other cases to be decided by the Articles of Confederation are those involving piracy and felony in the high seas, as well as appeal cases of captures.
The rules in the articles of Confederation state clearly the duties of each of the thirteen member states and each of the members had to ensure total adherence to the rules in the Articles of Confederation. Previously, the Articles did not bind any member who wished separation from the Union. It was later indicated that each state had already given up much of its powers to the union and therefore breaking away from the union would jeopardize the functioning of the union. Therefore, unless a member has committed a gross offence that is likely to injure or catastrophically affect the union, parting ways was not an option whatsoever. Indeed, the terms of the Articles of Confederation included the element of perpetual union. This means that, no member had the ability to separate from the union on his own volition but had to be vetted by Union.
The judicial system under The Articles of Confederation had its merits and demerits. It was a voluntary union where any state had the right of joining provided she signed the declaration of the Articles. During its existence, the federation/union was able to amass a lot of resources and also settling the major land claims by member states. The Articles of Confederation also facilitated the “passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which established a pattern of government for new territories north of Ohio River” (Bardes et al, 2008).
The major weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were lack of finances to fund the military, since the Congress did not have the powers to demand funding from the member states especially during the time of war; there was no a unified system of courts; and any amendments to the Articles required the consent of all the states. Therefore, this judicial system was not viable at all; despite the few positives it possessed and was obviously bound to fail.
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