Archibald Cox '34, Williston Professor of Law, has been named a visiting professor at Cambridge University in England for the academic year beginning next October.

Cox, who was fired two weeks ago by President Nixon as special Watergate prosecutor, will be Pitt Professor of History and Institutions at Cambridge.

A spokesman at Cambridge said yesterday that the appointment does not mean that Cox must leave the United States for an extended period. He is required only to visit Cambridge at least once during the year to deliver a lecture or series of lectures.

The spokesman said that such visiting professorships are decided "long before" the appointments are made, sometimes as much as a year. He declined to say, however, when the decision to appoint Cox was made.

Fired as Prosecutor

Cox, who was appointed special prosecutor last May, was fired for refusing to accept a compromise on the release of the Watergate tapes. He had assumed the job under a special eight point charter granting him an unprecedented degree of independence in investigating alleged irregularities in the 1972 presidential elections.

The 61-year-old Law School professor served as solicitor general in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations until 1965. His first service in national government came as head of the Wage Stabilization Board under President Truman.

At Harvard, Cox earned a reputation as "University trouble-shooter," primarily for his role in investigating the Columbia University upheaval in 1968, and for his efforts in ending a Harvard building takeover in 1971.