Oberhoheit

Oberhoheit, literally “higher sovereignty,” is a historical and legal term used in German-speaking contexts to denote the supreme or final authority held by a higher political or territorial unit over a subordinate one. It describes a vertical hierarchy of sovereignty in which the Oberhoheit can determine major policy, security, and legal questions for the subordinate jurisdiction, while the latter may exercise limited internal autonomy.

Historically the concept appeared in feudal and early modern Europe to differentiate between rulers or states with overarching sovereignty and those with subordinate or delegated authority. The scope of Oberhoheit varied by era and region, and could include foreign policy, defense, taxation, and the final authority in high justice, while internal administration was often left to the subordinate authority.

In the context of the Holy Roman Empire and German territorial law, Oberhoheit is discussed in relation to imperial immediacy, mediatisation, and the balance between higher and lower vassalage. It served as a framework to explain how princes, dukes, and imperial cities related to the emperor and to one another. Since the upheavals of centralization and the mediatisation of the early 19th century, formal expressions of Oberhoheit evolved as sovereignty was redistributed and reorganized.

In modern constitutional and political theory, Oberhoheit is used descriptively to analyze the distribution of competences between different levels of government. While not always a formal constitutional term in every jurisdiction, it remains a useful concept for understanding final or overarching authority within a territorial polity.

See also: Unterhoheit, sovereignty, mediatisation, imperial immediacy, federalism.