## Facts

- Global Reinsurance Corporation–U.S. Branch and Argonaut Insurance Company entered into multiple retrocessional reinsurance treaties.
- Disputes under the treaties were arbitrated, resulting in final arbitration awards.
- At Global’s request, the arbitration panel issued a confidentiality order limiting disclosure of arbitration materials.
- Global later filed a federal petition relating to confirmation of the arbitration awards and sought to file the awards under seal.
- The district court initially allowed sealing but reserved the right to revisit the decision.
- Argonaut moved for reconsideration and to unseal the final arbitration awards filed with the court.

## Issues

1. Whether arbitration awards submitted in connection with a federal petition to confirm are judicial documents subject to a presumption of public access.
2. Whether an arbitral confidentiality order and the parties’ expectations of confidentiality, without a specific showing of harm, justify continued sealing of the awards.
3. Whether generalized policy interests favoring confidential arbitration overcome common-law and First Amendment access interests in federal court filings.

## Decision

- The court granted Argonaut’s motion to unseal the final arbitration awards filed in the federal proceeding.
- The court held the awards, once filed, were judicial documents carrying a strong presumption of public access.
- The court found Global’s confidentiality arguments speculative and insufficient because Global did not show concrete, particularized harm from disclosure.
- The court determined the arbitral confidentiality order did not control the federal court’s sealing analysis.

## Legal Principles

- Materials submitted to a court in connection with adjudication of substantive rights are judicial documents presumptively open to public inspection.
- The presumption of access to judicial documents may be overcome only by countervailing interests supported by specific, non-speculative showings of harm.
- A general interest in preserving the confidentiality of arbitration, and the federal policy favoring arbitration, does not by itself justify sealing court filings.
- Confidentiality orders entered in private arbitration do not bind federal courts; sealing requires an independent judicial determination under public-access doctrines.

## Conclusion

Because the arbitration awards were filed to obtain judicial relief and Global failed to demonstrate specific harm that outweighed the presumption of access, the court ordered the awards unsealed notwithstanding the arbitration confidentiality order and generalized confidentiality concerns.


Global Reinsurance Corp.-U.S. Branch v. Argonaut Ins. Co., No. 07 Civ. 8191 (PKC), 2008 WL 1805459 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 18, 2008)