Capital punishment in France (French: peine de mort en France) is banned by Article 66-1 of the Constitution of the French Republic, voted as a constitutional amendment by the Congress of the French Parliament on 19 February 2007 and simply stating "No one can be sentenced to the death penalty" (French: Nul ne peut tre condamn la peine de mort). The death penalty was already declared illegal on 9 October 1981 when President Franois Mitterrand signed a law prohibiting the judicial system from using it and commuting the sentences of the seven people on death row to life imprisonment. The last execution took place by guillotine, being the main legal method since the French Revolution; Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian citizen convicted of torture and murder on French soil, who was put to death in September 1977 in Marseille.Major French death penalty abolitionists across time have included philosopher Voltaire; poet Victor Hugo; politicians Lon Gambetta, Jean Jaurs and Aristide Briand; and writers Alphonse de Lamartine and Albert Camus.

The National Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale; pronounced [asɑ̃ble nɑsjɔnal]) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (Sénat). The National Assembly's legislators are known as députés (French pronunciation: ​[depyˈte]; "delegate" or "envoy" in English; the word is an etymological cognate of the English word "deputy", which is the standard term for legislators in many parliamentary systems).

There are 577 députés, each elected by a single-member constituency (at least one per department) through a two-round voting system. Thus, 289 seats are required for a majority. The President of the National Assembly, currently Richard Ferrand, presides over the body. The officeholder is usually a member of the largest party represented, assisted by vice presidents from across the represented political spectrum. The National Assembly's term is five years; however, the President of the Republic may dissolve the Assembly (thereby calling for new elections) unless it has been dissolved in the preceding twelve months. This measure has become rarer since the 2000 referendum reduced the presidential term from seven to five years: since 2002, the President of the Republic has always had a majority elected in the Assembly two months after the presidential election. It would accordingly be of little benefit to dissolve it. Due to the separation of powers, the President of the Republic may not take part in parliamentary debates. They can however address the Congress of the French Parliament, which meets at the Palace of Versailles, or have the address read by the presidents of both chambers of Parliament, with no subsequent debate.

Following a tradition started by the first National Assembly during the French Revolution, the "left-wing" parties sit to the left as seen from the president's seat and the "right-wing" parties to the right; the seating arrangement thus directly indicates the political spectrum as represented in the Assembly. The official seat of the National Assembly is the Palais Bourbon on the Rive Gauche of the Seine in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The Assembly also uses other neighbouring buildings, including the Immeuble Chaban-Delmas on the Rue de l'Université. The National Assembly, as well as most institutions of importance in Paris, is guarded by Republican Guards.