Erik Luna

Biography

Erik Luna is Sydney and Frances Lewis Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California and received his J.D. with honors from Stanford Law School. Upon graduation, Luna was a prosecutor in the San Diego District Attorney's Office and a fellow and lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He has served as the senior Fulbright Scholar to New Zealand, where he taught at Victoria University Law School (Wellington, NZ) and conducted research on sentencing alternatives. Luna has also been a visiting scholar with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Freiburg, DE), a visiting professor with the Cuban Society of Penal Sciences (Havana, CU), and a visiting professional in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (The Hague, NL).

Prior to coming to Washington and Lee University, Luna was the Hugh B. Brown Professor of Law at the University of Utah and co-director of the Utah Criminal Justice Center. He has testified before Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and his commentary has appeared in print and broadcast media (e.g., The New York Times, The Economist, and National Public Radio). Luna is an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute and a project director with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He teaches and writes primarily in the areas of criminal law and procedure.