René Barents (born 31 December 1951) is a Dutch European Union law scholar. He has been a judge at the General Court since 19 September 2016. He previously served as a judge on the European Union Civil Service Tribunal from 2011 until 2016 Barents has worked for the European Union justice system since the early 1980s, and he has been a professor of European Union law at Maastricht University since 1989.