Congress can make laws… articles did not create a judicial branch… congress could not levy taxes… each state only had one vote… congress could not regulate trade… congress could not raise an army… the articles required nine of thirteen states to pass a law… so very few laws were passed. so it couldn’t pay the country’s debts. but it can’t force states to obey them. so people were not represented equally. so commerce between states was difficult and often disputed. so there was no national court system to decide disputes. so states were defenseless against attack by more powerful nations.