Taking this course in January/ February 2017, I found it to be jumbled, out-dated and frustrating.Materials are presented in a chaotic, roundabout way, which is neither chronological nor thematic, leaving huge lacunae. The initial lecture started with an entirely uncontextualised location-visit to Lewes, and mention of the Battle of Lewes in the Barons War, with plenty of merry jumping over the *rather more important* Magna Carta. In later lectures, there is similar dancing around the English Civil War, which is shocking, given its constitutional importance... and then lots of vague, hand-wavy references to European law. I understand that these lectures were filmed before last summers shock result in the EU referendum, but - honestly - would it have killed Professor Gearey to have discussed the context and possible implications of the referendum? By contrast, Im currently following a Futurelearn course which is a repeat iteration of the original material (thats how online courses are viable - I understand that) BUT which the educator cared about enough to updated with topical material from the very week in which we were following it (Week 1 of President Trump)!It would have been far better to have gone into the Common Law course with clear historical anchors (e.g. Magna Carta, Civil War, Great Reform Act, EU membership), which would have given a proper framework for studying the development of common law, through cases and precedent. Instead, we get Professor Gearey sliiiiiiding into half a dozen subjects per lecture and then leaving that question there for a later lecture.I must mention that other lecturer is much more coherent, and that he talks sensibly through various cases, actually demonstrating how precedent works. However, thats just not enough to make up for Professor Geareys flibbertigibbet style of exposition, which seems to make up the bulk of the course.On a technical level, the un-corrected transcripts of lectures were a huge headache, since they didnt make much more sense than the lectures themselves, and at times made even less sense, due to incorrect transcriptions. It was particularly frustrating to have legal references mis-spelled (e.g. Blackstone as Blackspen), making it difficult to track down better sources to supplement the lectures.I cant actually be bothered to see this course through to the end, and am very glad I didnt purchase it.
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