To what extent and in what form can the rule of law exist in non‐democratic jurisdictions? This panel explores issues related to these perennial questions from fresh angles. The first two papers expound the nature of the rule of law. Jeff King argues that state regulation is an important element of the rule of law, but that this does not necessarily enable the rule of law rhetoric to serve authoritarian states. Ewan Smith‘s paper critically evaluates accounts of the rule of law developed in authoritarian constitutional orders which present the rule of law as a set of requirements that rectify officials rather than institutions. The next two papers explore what room there might be for courts to establish and sustain the rule of law in non‐democratic regimes. Ruiyi Li presents a case for judicial enforcement of constitutional rights in China, a one‐party state, while Julius Yam analyses how electoral politics in a hybrid regime such as Hong Kong can sustain judicial independence.