Computer cryptography has been, and to some extent continues to be, dogged by two particular legal/political issues:
Patents: many important cryptographic algorithms are (or have been) subject to software patents in some countries - particularly in the USA but also in Europe. Until recently this included most algorithms implementing public key cryptography, which is vital to TLS's operation. However one of the important patents (that on the RSA algorithm in the USA) expired in late 2000 and this has simplified the situation.
Munitions: software implementing strong cryptography is regarded by many countries as being indistinguishable from guns and explosives, at least as far as import and export restrictions are concerned. Again the USA used to be particularly difficult in this regard, making it almost impossible to export software from the US that implemented strong cryptography. This situation improved in 1999 when the US administration significantly relaxed their restrictions, though some remain.
This has lead to all sorts of oddities. For example, it is quite common to find that cryptographic software has been deliberately developed in countries other than the US, both to avoid export restrictions and to avoid problems with patents. It is also still common to come across references to "Export Grade" ciphers (weak ciphers that were permitted to be exported before 1999), or "US domestic grade" ciphers (all the rest). Additionally some cryptographic protocols use what can seem to be unusual algorithms to avoid patent restrictions.