A juvenile court judge ordered today that Michael C. Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, be tried as an adult in the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, setting the stage for a dramatic jury trial more than a quarter-century after Miss Moxley was found bludgeoned to death outside her family's home in Greenwich, Conn.

Mr. Skakel, who is now 40, was charged as a juvenile because he was 15 at the time of Miss Moxley's death. If he is convicted as an adult, he could face a sentence of life in prison. Conviction by a juvenile court judge would have meant little or no jail time, and state prosecutors had suggested they might have dropped the case if Mr. Skakel were not tried as an adult in Superior Court. If Mr. Skakel is convicted, the trial judge in the adult court will have to decide how to sentence him.

In a decision filled mostly with footnotes and quotations from statutes, the judge, Maureen Dennis, ruled today that Connecticut's juvenile justice system was not equipped to punish a 40-year-old defendant and ordered the case transferred to Superior Court. She did not rule on a motion by Mr. Skakel's lawyer to dismiss the case.

''From the evidence presented, this court finds that there is no available or suitable state institution designed for the care and treatment of children to which the Juvenile Court could commit the now-40-year-old respondent that would be suitable for his care and treatment, should he be adjudicated delinquent for the murder of Martha Moxley,'' Judge Dennis wrote.

''This court further finds that the facilities of the adult criminal division of the Superior Court afford and provide a more effective setting for the disposition of this case,'' she continued, adding that adult correctional centers were more fitting for Mr. Skakel should he be found guilty.

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The prosecutor's office reacted jubilantly to the decision, saying it was ready to move forward with the case. ''I have been involved in this case a long time,'' said Frank Garr, an inspector in the state's attorney's office and a former Greenwich detective, who has been a lead investigator in the Moxley case. ''I am very happy with the results.''

In a television interview, Miss Moxley's brother, John, said his family was also pleased. ''I am cautiously optimistic,'' he said. ''My mom and I think this is just the next step in the process. It has taken us 25 years to get here.'' He said the family was looking ahead to the next hearing in the case sometime within 60 days. ''It's exciting news,'' he said. ''It's what we hoped for and what we expected.'' Dorthy Moxley, who for more than 25 years has quietly insisted that justice be done in her daughter's case, could not be reached for comment tonight.

Mr. Skakel's lawyer, Michael Sherman, said he was not surprised by the decision. ''This was more or less expected,'' he said in a telephone interview from Aspen, Colo. ''I certainly disagree with her decision. There were no compelling reasons to transfer this case out of the juvenile court.''

''The fact that the State of Connecticut apparently has no present facility to accommodate Michael Skakel is not a reason to subject someone to a sentence of 25 to 60 years as opposed to virtually nothing,'' Mr. Sherman said. ''A very small amount of creativity would be required to accommodate Michael Skakel in the very unlikely event that he was ever convicted in this case.''

Mr. Sherman said he believed a jury would acquit Mr. Skakel.

He said that he had not spoken to prosecutors about a possible plea deal and did not expect they would offer one.

Today's decision came more than five months after Judge Dennis ruled that there was ''reasonable cause'' to believe that Mr. Skakel had killed Miss Moxley, who was his friend and next-door neighbor. Miss Moxley, who was also 15 at the time, was found with her head smashed with a golf club from a set that had belonged to Mr. Skakel's mother, Ann Reynolds Skakel. Mr. Skakel's father, Rushton Skakel Sr., is the brother of Ethel Kennedy.

The prosecution has suggested that Mr. Skakel was infatuated with Miss Moxley, a pretty and popular girl whose family lived next door to his in Belle Haven, an exclusive gated community in Greenwich, one of the nation's wealthiest suburbs. Officials have suggested that he killed her in a rage on the night of Oct. 30, 1975, perhaps after seeing her kiss his older brother, Thomas.

Miss Moxley's body was found under a pine tree on her family's property. During a hearing last spring, prosecution witnesses testified that Mr. Skakel had confessed to the murder while he was a student at the Elan School in Poland Spring, Me.

Legal experts said that today's decision by Judge Dennis offered no surprises and that she had clung carefully to the law. They said the decision did not appear to include any creative or unusual legal reasoning that might explain why it took so long to produce. Judge Dennis has declined all requests for interviews about the Skakel case.

''I think it was a perfectly predictable opinion,'' said Professor Bill Dunlap of the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, Conn. ''The juvenile system, as Judge Dennis said, simply isn't designed to handle a 40-year-old defendant. There is no juvenile facility that is either appropriate or legally qualified to take him and there doesn't appear to be any claim that he should be in a mental hospital and therefore the juvenile court appears to be the wrong place to try him.''

He added, ''The other reason for trying people in juvenile court is that there is a privacy concern, that undue publicity can destroy a child's life forever. It doesn't apply in his case, not because he is 40 years old, but everybody already knows who the defendant is and everybody will know afterwards what the outcome is.''

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