How to declare war with justification?

[bitmapkid]

I'm finally reaching a point where my military strength is greater than my neighbors and I'm interested in colonizing a few planets in their territory. But when I try to declare war it says "there is insufficient justification for war" and "we will suffer negative reputation impact" because of this.

How do I create a justification for a war against this empire?

I found this topic from a few months ago and there was no real consensus on what plays into war justification:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1531540/discussions/0/3758851410775479357/

Has anyone figured it out?

[frankycl]

I don't recall it properly, but I think Erik said something about when your enemy invades/conqueres or destroys one of your colonies it shouldn't be an unjustified war - but he also said something about, that it depends on the pop-sizes on those colonies, too, I think.

But nevertheless it's a very bad system, imho - and it should be revised quite soon.

[bitmapkid]

Thank you.

I think I'll just declare war and deal with the consequences. I'm not sure if the reputation is with my own population or if it's going to affect my relations with other empires. We'll see.

[kezthezek]

I have never been able to declare a justified war, even after being attacked. I think it's just bugged.

[bigd]

One faction used spies to destroy 5 of my stations after being detected. I still had no justification to go to war. Just go to war with them. You will not take a big hit and not everybody will hate you.

[frankycl]

Originally posted by kezthezek:

I have never been able to declare a justified war, even after being attacked. I think it's just bugged.

Well, I at least had witnessed an AI-faction to not get an unjustified-war-penalty after starting a war (multiple times) - but I hadn't checked/tested what could be the reason for this, sadly.
So, it seems it does happen/work at least in some situations... ... but nevertheless could also be bugged in other situations, I guess - so, to report it, if you think it might not work as intended, shouldn't be wrong, too, I think.