The current special issue presents the state of the art on the topics of both bilingual language control and executive function, with a particular focus on how bilingualism and cognitive control interact. The contributions to this issue investigate the mechanisms that allow bilinguals to regulate their languages and address how different aspects of language processing might be causally related to cognitive control. Taken together, these papers suggest a more complex engagement and coordination of executive control networks than revealed in past research and a need to more fully characterise those aspects of bilingual language experience that contribute to regulatory processes.