Two more comments have been posted at terraplexic. One is very succinct, by Tony Waters,

Trials as Ritual Mechanisms
Tony Waters
Trials themselves are ritual mechanisms through which governments demonstrate the legitimacy of their power (what Max Weber called the “monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in a given territory”). The advantage of jury trials, including that of Hamdan, is - as de Tocqueville wrote - that they tell everyone who's in charge, since "He who punishes the criminal is therefore the real master of society." In a slow but imperfect fashion, the Hamdan trial may be signaling that the executive branch of government is no longer the unquestionable master of society, at least when it comes to the War on Terror. Independent judicial review may be returning.
I don't think it (independent judicial review) ever really disappeared, but it certainly is now rearing its head (which, IMO, seems a good thing). Of the three branches, the Federal judiciary is the weakest branch. It is dependent on Congress for financing and organization of its courts. It is dependent on the Executive for enforcement of its decisions ("John Marshall has made his decision. Now, let him enforce it."). Its primary power is the credibility of its decisions.

The second comment is by one Marc Tyrell (Le Canada ...),

....As I read it, I found myself having several reactions which made me want to examine some of the presuppositions behind the entire military tribunal system and, especially, as it applies to those being held in Guantanamo Bay. ...
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My first question, then, would be “when does a non-state actor become a state”? Or, to phrase it subtly differently, when does world opinion hold that the use of violence by a specific, identifiable group, shift to the point that the rules applied to its use of violence are those of “international relations” (e.g. “lawful combatants”) rather than those of a single, sovereign, legal system (e.g. “unlawful combatants”)? ...
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.... my second question: why should any group accept the state-based conceptualization of international relations?

This question is especially important when one considers that the post-Westphalian concept of a “society of states” is based on a radically different religious, historical and cultural view of “reality” from that of much of the world today. And, possibly more importantly, when the force a transnational non-state actor can now apply is much greater than at any other time in our species history thanks to the growth of global integration in economics and communications and the increased development of diaspora communities? ...
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My question is this: what possible interpretation of international law allows the military of one sovereign nation to detain the citizens of another sovereign nation and charge them under a national, as opposed to an international, legal system?
Both posted at

http://www.terraplexic.org/review/