Pergunta semelhante já fora feita aqui:
renúncia a foro especial = waiver of privileged jurisdiction em
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/2773222




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Note added at 33 mins (2011-05-30 18:29:06 GMT)
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A maioria dos não advogados confunde foro (jurisdição) com forum.
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Jurisdiction
1. Power of a court to adjudicate cases and issue orders.
2. Territory within which a court or government agency may properly exercise its power.
The term jurisdiction is really synonymous with the word "power". Any court possesses jurisdiction over matters only to the extent granted to it by the Constitution, or legislation of the sovereignty on behalf of which it functions. The question of whether a given court has the power to determine a jurisdictional question is itself a jurisdictional question. Such a legal question is referred to as "jurisdiction to determine jurisdiction.

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Note added at 39 mins (2011-05-30 18:34:43 GMT)
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A origem do forpo privilegiado é descrita na Catholica Encyclopedia,
como visto em http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08567a.htm.
In regard to ecclesiastical jurisdiction in criminal matters the Church exercised jurisdiction at first only in purely ecclesiastical offences, and inflicted only ecclesiastical punishments, e.g. excommunication, and in the case of clerics deposition.
...
Conversely, the Church in the Middle Ages increased its penal jurisdiction in the civil domain by infliction of varied penalties, some of them purely secular in character. Above all, by means of the privilegium fori it withdrew the so-called "criminous clerks" from the jurisdiction of the civil courts. Then it obtained for the court held by the bishop during his diocesan visitation (the send) not only the punishment of those civil misdemeanours which involved the element of sin and consequently affected both Church and State, but it also punished, and as such, purely civil offences.

Somente o bispo poderia julgar o padre, não o juiz civil.