The federal court ruled that under the Geneva Conventions, Hamdan, as a prisoner of war, was entitled to a court hearing that followed the same procedures as one judging soldiers of the detaining power, that is, an American court martial. The Supreme Court, however, sidestepped the question of whether Hamdan was a prisoner of war, arguing instead that the conflict was governed by common Article III in all the Geneva Conventions, which regulates armed conflict ”not of an international character.”