The difference is that it's illegal. Your government isn't immune to this either.

In fact, European countries are actually more vulnerable to it because power is generally concentrated at the highest level. In the United States each state has its own courts, military, police, legislature, executor, treasury, etc. Just because the federal government is doing something illegal doesn't automatically mean that the laws they're breaking are meaningless. However, the U.K. parlament passing a law unilaterally affects the entire country.