Hi Kim! First of all, I agree with everything Leslie says in her answer :) In your last sentence, I think you are asking what other examples of this structure exist. In this case, you've got 'as' followed by a passive structure (be+past participle). In other sentences with this structure you could also omit the explicit pronoun 'it'. For example: According to the graph, X is growing at a rate of X per year, as (it is) shown below: The author is clearly trying to communicate X, as (it is) implied by the following statement: You could also omit subjects in this way to reference a past action: As (it was) discussed yesterday, our plan is.... Those are just some examples I can think of off the top of my head....hope it helps, Kim!

"As laid out" means "as made clear." So, the statement implies there are clear laws protecting these rights. Next, no, "it is" isn't necessary after "as" (although it wouldn't be wrong to include it). Sorry, but your last question isn't clear. Wish I could help more.