Ruth Mason

Ruth Mason is an expert on state income taxation in the United States and European Union. Over the last decade, Mason has developed an economic approach to tax discrimination grounded in the concept of comparative advantage. Her work in this area was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as part of the court’s adoption of her approach under the dormant commerce clause. 

Mason’s articles have appeared in top U.S. law reviews and top peer-reviewed journals. An internationally recognized scholar, she has given talks around the world, including in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Mason has been a visiting professor at Yale Law School, the University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Vienna University of Economics and the Business, and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.

Since June 2023, Mason has collaborated with the Max Planck Institute on a funded research project studying modes of fiscal solidarity in federations. She also has served as national reporter for the United States to the International Fiscal Association, and she is a member of the American Law Institute.

Mason supervises doctoral students, teaches taxation and serves as faculty adviser to UVA’s tax moot court team, which has won three international championships. She co-founded the Oxford-Virginia Legal Dialogs. In 2023, she was named faculty director of the Virginia Center for Tax Law.