An expert in criminal justice has been appointed professor of law at Harvard Law School (HLS), Dean Robert C. Clark announced yesterday.

William J. Stuntz will come to Harvard from the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Law, where he holds UVA's Class of 1962 professorship.

Harvard is "fortunate to have him," said Kim A. Forde-Mazrui, a member of the UVA faculty. "He is an incredibly insightful, respected scholar [and] cares a lot about his teaching."

The HLS Dean's Office greeted Stuntz's acceptance with enthusiasm.

"William Stuntz's appointment is a stunning addition to our criminal law faculty," Clark said in a prepared statement.

Many of Stuntz's colleagues said they share high esteem for Stuntz and his investigations into modern criminal law.

UVA Law School Dean John C. Jeffries said in an interview that Stuntz is a "leading scholar on the intersection of criminal law and criminal procedure" and said that the school certainly regretted his departure.

Stuntz held a visiting professorship at HLS in the fall of 1998 and said the nature of the students at Harvard served as part of his attraction to the school.

He admitted that his decision to join the Harvard faculty was not without initial reservation--he has lived and taught in Charlottesville, Va for over a decade--but he now looks forward to joining the Harvard faculty, having resolved to come to Boston with his wife and three children.

Upon his more permanent arrival in Cambridge next July, Stuntz said he anticipates teaching primarily within the criminal law and criminal procedure department of HLS--most probably the first-year criminal law course, as well as courses in advanced criminal procedure and federal criminal law from year to year.

Jeffries and Clark both praise Stuntz's knowledge and capabilities in these fields, in particular his ability to analyze both criminal law and criminal procedure in a joint context.

His published works include "The Uneasy Relationship Between Criminal Procedure and Criminal Justice" and "The Substantive Origins of Criminal Procedure," both in the Yale Law Journal.

Stuntz has spoken often at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., and has also lectured on the relationship between Christianity and legal theory. He said he hopes to write further on overcriminalization in modern America, as well as legal regulation of the police.

Stuntz received a B.A. in history and English from the College of William and Mary. Four years later, in 1984, Stuntz earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia.

After graduating, he held clerkships for Judge Louis H. Pollack of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and for Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Stuntz spoke fondly of both his clerkships, but said he gained a much more representative familiarity with the general workings of the nation's justice system under Judge Pollack.

In fact, if he were faced with a choice between the two, Stuntz said he would have hoped to choose to learn about the American legal system through the everyday proceedings in the Keystone State.